Agency areas still unaware of 108

Created On: 22 Dec 2015 6:30 AM IST

1,429 Zero-Call Villages were reported from Agency areas in last quarter. GVK EMRI has 13 services in the area. Lack of network and transport are the probable reasons. Despite pressing as many as 13 ‘108’ ambulance vehicles in the Agency areas of the district, as many as 1,429 ‘Zero-Call Villages’ (ZCV) were reported from the Agency areas in the last quarter. High number of ZCV doesn’t mean that the people living in the hamlets are hale and healthy, it rather indicates a painful truth that they still aren’t aware about the services of ‘108’ ambulance.

While ‘108’ ambulance service of GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (GVK EMRI) aims to reach all three terrains - urban, rural and Agency within the Minimum Response Time (MRT) to meet emergencies, the number of ZCVs are posing a concern. Statistics reveal EMRI call centre receives as many as 2,000 calls a day across the State of which 970 are related to pregnancy cases. In the district 210 calls are received on an average and the November saw 90 pregnancy cases. A senior official with GMRI said that the MRT to reach urban areas in district is 16 minutes 4 seconds while that of rural areas is 22 minutes 14 seconds and the tribal areas is 26 minutes 33 seconds. The official informed that they are striving hard to improve MRT.Speaking to The Hans India, Regional Manager of GVK EMRI, Hemanta Kumar Bhattu said that 1,623 ZCVs were identified in the last quarter of which only 194 are from urban areas.

“This might be due to lack of mobile network or bad transport infrastructure,” he added. Bhattu informed that they conduct three types of public awareness programs to increase awareness in the tribal areas. “We keep a tab on ZCVs through our executives,” he added. Maintaining that pregnancy cases are the focus area, “We are keen to shift pregnant women, who are in labour to nearby government hospitals in a bid to decrease Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate IMR),” he added.

“Apart from organising PHC level meetings involving Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and ANMs to gather information related to expected date of delivery, we also keep a track of diet of pregnant women ICDS and Women and Child Welfare departments,” he informed.

Agency areas still unaware of 108

Share :

Tags