Ambulances to respond faster

LUDHIANA, Oct 1: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal launched ambulance networking scheme, first of its kind in the country, by inaugurating Emergency Health Services Control Room in Civil Hospital, here today.

The control room would be manned for 24 hours by qualified doctors and wireless and telephone operators. It will have 39 ambulances belonging to 25 organisations and health department, available to it on call. It has been equipped with latest means of communication with four telephone lines and a wireless connection to police network.

The scheme is meant to ensure that there was minimum time gap in the ambulance reaching the needy persons. During the second phase, it is proposed that all the ambulances will be linked by radio trunking wireless network so that their response period gets further reduced. Already some of the hospitals, have on their own, purchased wireless set so that ambulances could be contacted by the control room even when they were in field area. Sponsorship for linking all the ambulances in the city through a common network is being sought and many of the NGOs and philanthropic organisations had expressed their keen desire to sponsor these wireless sets and other equipment.