Karnataka launches 262 ambulances under ‘108’ service; fleet now 715

The state government on Thursday flagged off 262 new ambulances under the 108 Arogya Kavacha emergency medical services. With this addition, the total fleet of ambulances has now increased to 715. 

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah flagged off the ambulances lined in front of the steps of the Vidhana Soudha, in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad,and Health Commissioner D Randeep. 

Replacing 262 old ambulances, 157 of the new ambulances offer Basic Life Support (BLS), while 105 of them offer Advanced Life Support (ALS) with a transport ventilator and defibrillator in each of them. 

The 108 ambulance service has run into several issues due to poor adoption of modern technology for quality improvement over the years, said Rao.

“We have sent committees to inspect the 108 ambulance services in other states and are awaiting their reports. Our goal is to reduce the time ambulances take to reach people and enable a flow of information between hospitals and ambulances to help save patients’ lives,” he said. 

He also said that the department was working towards procuring special ambulances for newborn babies, besides establishing trauma centres on all the highways with ambulances on standby to immediately transport crash victims to the nearest hospitals. 

Shivakumar urged the department to hold ambulance drivers accountable so that they prioritise government hospitals over private ones.

“There is some fix between drivers and private hospitals, who take advantage of patients’ families and their fears to take them to expensive private hospitals. Our PHCs (Primary Health Centres) and government hospitals are on a par or even better than private hospitals so they must be preferred first,” he said. 

Siddaramaiah urged the department to increase the number of 108 ambulances to at least 840 across the state, when the Deputy CM piped in and said there must be at least four per taluk.

“There is an idea among people that only private hospitals give quality treatment. That should go. We must make people realise that government hospitals can also provide an equal level of service,” he said and directed the department to also focus on North Karnataka.