AROGYA KAVACHA(108 Ambulance Services) BACKGROUND: In the day to day life of an individual or the Society, sudden events that

take place threatening the life, health, property, demands immediate attention. These emergency like situations may arise due to an accident in the day to day traffic, disturbance of peace & tranquility in the public life, diseases afflicting individuals like the Cardiac problems, respiratory problems, acute abdominal problems, , animal bite, poisoning or over dose of the drugs, Allergic Reactions, Unconsciousness, epilepsy, fever, infection, burns, Stroke/CVA, pregnancy ,environmental/ Industrial issues , Assault/violence, behavioral, disaster etc. Unless immediate and effective responses are provided in such situations, it would be very difficult to contain the loss that may be caused to the life and properties. Road accidents & life style diseases are increasing day by day and the affected people need immediate and timely response. Also timely movement of pregnants to the Hospitals during the period of labor save both the mother and child. Many a life is lost for lack of timely response . This often requires a coordinated response from multiple agencies like police, fire and Medical Service. In this background, the State Government conceived the Arogya Kavacha (108) scheme. SCHEME: AROGYA KAVACHA Scheme provides a comprehensive emergency

service. It integrates many emergency resources and provides sustainable round the clock safety to the citizens in a timely and effective manner through

three contiguous sectors viz., SENSE, REACH and CARE. i.e., (i)Collection of the facts about the emergency and assigning the strategically located vehicle to provide relief (ii)ensuring the transport vehicle reaches the site emergency and (iii)providing pre-hospital care while transporting the patient/victim to the Hospital for stabilization. IMPLEMENTATION: Arogya Kavacha Scheme has been implemented under Public Private Partnership with Emergency Management Research Institute(EMRI), Secunderabad. EMRI is a professionally managed body and has proven

technology and software and offers an integrated total turnkey solution. It has been successfully operating in the public private partnership model. EMRI has been allotted a three digit number - 108 by the Government of India and made it toll-free across the State for all emergencies and can be accessed from land line and mobile without prefixing area code. Apart from providing emergency management, EMRI conducts research related to emergencies and offers various emergency management training programmes. Every emergency call made to the number 108 will be attended to by the emergency team in the call centre and that centre would ensure that the ambulance with paramedical staff and necessary equipments reaches the spot and necessary pre-hospitalization care is rendered to stabilize the victim/patient before being shifted to the hospital. Such a highly professional body provides Comprehensive Emergency Management Response Services to

the People of the State. The Scheme will ensure comprehensive Emergency Response Services(Medical, Health Care, Police, Fire) using toll free number, training facilities and technology. The scheme envisages to be run on a no loss, no profit basis. The Total cost of Implementation of this Scheme is Rs.221.25 Crores from the period 2008-09 to 2010-11. As per the MOU responsibilities: (i)Establish and operate Emergency Response Services in the State. (ii)Provide technological , leadership, administrative and managerial support as the private partner in an open and transparent manner to produce mutually agreed outcome. (iii)Provide application software for the project free of cost. (iv)Serve as a vital emergency management information and Assistance resource and raise societal awareness of, and capability in, emergency management and response mechanisms and thus save the valuable lives and reduce the economic impact to the Citizens. (v)Operate ambulances and ensure that ambulance services are available round the clock throughout the year. (vi)Recruit, train and position the required man power including ambulance crew. (vii)Provide emergency response services to police, fire and Medical emergencies including pregnancy related cases with the EMRI shall discharge following

(viii)Conduct training programs for paramedics, doctors and other Academic activities (workshops/seminars) as required for Governmental Doctors and others.

PROGRESS: 1. As per the MOU, Arogya Kavacha Scheme has been operationalised with effect from 01.11.2008. By now, State has deployed 517 Ambulances out of which 130 are Advance Life Support ambulances(ALS) and the remaining 387 basic Life Support Ambulances(BLS). These Ambulances operates covering all the 30 Districts. Each ambulance cater to a population of about One lakh to 1.1 lakh. Deployment of 517 ambulances also translates to a per trip distance of about 25 KMs which results into transportation of the patient/victim within the Golden hour. 2. Out of the total emergencies, 95-98% is related to Medical

emergencies including medico legal cases and the rest are exclusively for Police& Fire Cases. 3. Since inception, the EMRI call centre has received 2.77 Crore calls by 21st Feb.2012 of which about 29% are ineffective calls.

4. Following is the percentage break-up of various categories of Medical Scheme. Sl.No. Medical emergency category 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Injury Pregnancy Respiratory problem Cardiac Diabetes Acute abdominal Problem Animal bite Poisoning/drug over dose Others (include Allergic Reactions, Assault/violence, behavioral, disasters, environmental, epilepsy, fever, infection, burns, Stroke/CVA, Industrial, Unconsciousness etc. Total Percentage. 14 43 5 4 1 13 2 3 15 emergency calls attended under the Arogya Kavacha

100

From the above it is clear that under the Arogya Kavacha Scheme the State has been able to provide a highly effective comprehensive emergency response service to the people of the State.