Free Ambulance service
Given the situation of Kashmir, ambulance services much needed especially in the rural areas. There has been lot of negligence deaths due to the lack of ambulances especially in the villages. In a recent meeting Governor’s administration approved operationalization of the 102-108 Toll Free Ambulance Service in the state.
102-108 free Ambulance Service will provide round the clock transportation to the patients requiring immediate medical care especially critical, Trauma, accidental victims, pregnant women & sick children. The intervention will prove to be a boon in saving precious lives by providing timely medical care to people particularly residing in far flung and difficult pockets of the state.
The State Government will bring a fleet of 416 Ambulances under the ambit of this service, which will be operationalised through a centralised Call Centre working on 24×7 basis. 102 Ambulance Service will provide free of cost service to the targeted population (pregnant women, sick children etc). Under no circumstances, any user fee will be levied from any targeted beneficiary for providing transportation services.
108 Ambulance Service is predominantly an emergency response system, primarily designed to attend to patients of critical care, trauma and accident victims etc. Dedicated centralized Call Centres, one each at Srinagar and Jammu, would be established to run 102-108 Ambulance Service in the State. The services of Call Centres would be outsourced for which the J&K Medical Supplies Corporation Limited had floated the tenders and finalized the Rate Contract. The 102/108 project will be operational by 15 October 2019.
But in Kashmir people have very bitter experience of such announcements as after sometime even the telephone only ring and there is no response from the other side. Most of the phones in the emergency departments of Srinagar hospitals are never picked-up by the concerned officials.
