The Union government aims at ensuring that there is one basic life support ambulance per 1 lakh population, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar has informed the Rajya Sabha.
This was her response to an unstarred question from MP Kanimozhi N.V.N. Somu, who wanted to know whether the lack of effective emergency care network, and ill-equipped and uncertified ambulances were the reasons for inadequate emergency medical response, resulting in high casualty rate during emergency medical crises in the country.
She had also sought details of steps taken or proposed to reduce casualty and the guidelines issued to government and non-government organisations on the use of ambulances.
Dr. Pawar said the Health Ministry provided technical and financial support to States and Union Territories to strengthen their public healthcare system, based on the requirements they post in their programme implementation plans. The Union government approved financial support for ambulances, including for GPS, equipment and medicines, on the condition that the functionality of the equipment and the maintenance are certified at the district-level by a nominated technical person. The performance of ambulances is monitored through the response time, the number of trips and utilisation.
Gujarat, Chandigarh and Goa had achieved the target for response time, Dr. Pawar told the House.Under the National Health Mission, the Union Health Ministry had launched the National Ambulance Services (NAS). It supports basic life support ambulances (BLS), Advanced Life Support ambulances (ALS) and Patient Transport Vehicles (PTV), she said.
While ALS is for an average of 5 lakh population and BLS for over one lakh, States may propose the number of ambulances required, she added.India has 2,957 ALS, 14,613 BLS; 4,259 PTV; 17 boats and 81 bikes supported by NHM, according to the NHM-MIS June, 2023.She further said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had issued the Automotive Industry Standard (AIS 125), also called the National Ambulance Code, which lists guidelines for States/Union Territories and non-government organisations on the standards for ambulances in the country.
