Ambulances to be Uberised

Amaravati: The state government is going to introduce Ambulance Uberisation programme to provide medical services in the easiest manner.

The AP 108 mobile application has been developed and will be made available for services in next couple of days, tentatively, said the medical and health department Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah. She told The Hans India that the persons in need of service could directly use this mobile app by sending their location.

Ambulances for emergency services will be available under this application. At present, around 470 government ambulances are available and another 75 ambulances will be arranged from private players.

At any given point of time, the ambulances will be available to the patients within 40 km radius in urban areas, 80 km radius in rural and about 100 km radius in tribal areas, Malakondaiah explained.

She said that when the patients tap the button on the mobile app, it will send alert to all the ambulances within the stipulated radius. Those who could attend the patient will confirm and reach as soon as possible to the spot.

Besides, the mobile application will also make an automatic call to the 108 service call centre and the patients will be given assistance through teleconference. In this process, if no ambulance takes the patients’ call, then the 108 service providers will arrange alternative.

Malakondaiah explained that at present there was one ambulance available for every 1.2 lakh people in the state. After taking the help of about 300 private ambulances, one ambulance will be available for every 70,000 people through this newly introducing programme.

She said that they had procured around 70 ambulances from private players. They will be used in urban areas and the government ambulances will be sent to the rural areas, so as to reduce burden on public exchequer. She said that the government will provide Rs 25 per km to the private ambulance, like fire service, another emergency service.