Major reforms in CATS expected this year

Taking almost 450 trips in the city daily, the Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) – the autonomous ambulance service of the Delhi government — is an integral part of the Delhi’s health care system. In the coming months, the city health department plans to bring many positive changes to improve the services of the ambulance system.

Digitisation, outsourcing of trained labor and increase in capacity of ambulances are some of the important points of change that will be implemented in due course of time. At present, there are 152 ambulances operating in the city. There are plans to add 110 more ambulances, said one of the top official at CATS. The official added that CATS will emphasise on digitisation, which will be implemented to improve caller mapping, ambulance navigation and improvement in mode of communication.

On the caller front, there will be setting of an application which will aid in better mapping of the caller, both calling from land line and from cell phone. There will be setting up of global positioning services (GPS) in ambulances that will help in better navigation and also setting up of the mobile data terminal. The building of a well-equipped control room at Laxmi Nagar is already underway.

According to the official, an application will also be developed for pre-arrival notification – the first of its kind in the country – which would inform the hospital before hand about the arrival of ambulances and to make changes accordingly.

To overcome the lack of manpower, which is almost short by 200, work will be outsourced to professional agencies to provide trained personnel. The official said that by May, all these changes would be implemented.