The new fleet of CATS ambulance will provide free emergency services to patients from their home to a nearby hospital for the first time. The service will be extend to both government and private hospitals.
“Each ambulance has been provided with mobile tablets for easy navigation and to enter the patient’s details enabling advance notice to the hospitals,” the statement said. The CATS ambulance introduced in 1992, which served only accident victims and pregnant women, will now extend it services to patients, who suffer a sudden heart attack.
Helpline number 102, an app and a control room was launched in Laxmi Nagar to keep a track on patients and the ambulance. This was done to facilitate proper communication between the patient and the CATS professionals for availing the emergency ambulance services.
N Vasanth Kumar, special project officer in-charge of CATS said emphasis has been out on information technology.
“Right from the time a contact between a patient and a CATS paramedical system is established, the patient will get the details of the driver and the ambulance coming to pick him/ her up. Every movement of the patient and the ambulance will be tracked from the control room in Laxmi Nagar till they reach the hospital,” Kumar said. Kumar also informed about the pre-hospital notification system, which would alert the hospitals about CATS ambulances on the way.
The government has for the first time initiated a successful Public Private Partnership (PPP) and outsourcing model to reform CATS ambulance. Private companies – Wipro, Trinity IT services Pvt Ltd, Bharat Vikas Group, Bafna Healthcare Private Limited, Symbiosis Institute of Healthcare Sciences and United Kingdom Ambulance – are providing services to the government to ensure proper functioning of the control room and uninterrupted movement of CATS ambulances. The government plans to extend the reformation in CATS to fire brigade and disaster management systems.
Hailing the world-class control room in Laxmi Nagar, Sisodia said with top class ambulance system, the onus will also be on citizens to work in compliance with the system and make a smooth way for the plying of ambulances. Of 110 CATS ambulance, the government has already received 55 and remaining would be delivered in a month’s time.