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Govt plans to beef up 108 ambulance fleet

The process of buying 50 ambulances for the current year is already on and Rs55 cr has been allotted.

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The state government is considering the purchase of 50 ambulances every year so that the 108 emergency services remain unhindered. According to officials of the state health department, the GVK EMRI, better known as the 108 services, has 400 ambulances for Gujarat.

“The vehicles will eventually need to be replaced. So, we are already planning to purchase vehicles every year to ensure that the emergency services to do not suffer,” a top official of the state health department said. "The process of buying 50 ambulances for the current year is already on and Rs55 crore has been allotted for this purpose," he said.

A source, however, said that at least 80 ambulances needed to be purchase every year if the government wanted to keep the fleet size intact. The serviceable life of these ambulances is not more than five years, the source said.

The state government will be putting aside funds for the purchase of the ambulances from what it gets under the central government's National Rural Health Mission (NHRM). The aforementioned official, however, denied that the 108 services formed a centre-funded scheme. "If all states get money under the scheme, then why is the service not available across India? Bihar gets Rs1,000 crore, while Gujarat gets only Rs500 crore," he said, adding, "It is up to the state government to utilise the money that it has."

The official further said that since there was not much scope for 'cuts or kickbacks' in the EMRI scheme, most other states are staying away from making full use of it. "Since this is not the case with Gujarat, the emergency services are flourishing here," he said.

As of now, the aim of adding 50 ambulances to the fleet every year is to penetrate tribal areas of the state as well as those talukas where medical services are in bad shape. 
“With the addition of basic life-support ambulances, the response time will be brought down and patients will receive effective treatment," a health department official said. The new ambulances would be put into service soon. The services currently cover a population of around 50 million in all 226 talukas of the state.

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