26 more ambulances added to fleet in Odisha. Here’s details

Bhubaneswar: Another 26 vehicles were added to the fleet of 92 ambulances under 108 ambulance service launched by Odisha government in 2013.

Health & Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena flagged off 26 ambulances during a programme here today.

The ambulance service will be available at various community health centres (CHCs) and primary health centres (PHCs) in the districts of Sundargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Sambalpur and Sonepur.

Here’s details of base location of 26 ambulances: 

Notably, the 108 Emergency Medical Ambulance Service was launched on March 5, 2013.

Currently, the 108 ambulance service is operated with a fleet of 444 vehicles (388 Basic Life Support and 56 Advanced Life Support) covering all 30 districts providing emergency medical service for free of cost.

In addition to the 108 Ambulance Service, the State has in position a fleet of 500 ambulances under 102 Ambulance Service for transportation of pregnant mothers and sick infants, a press release said.

With the launch of the programme, over 35 lakh people of Odisha have been benefited from the ambulance service so far. The service was also instrumental for reducing Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) significantly in the State.

In order to further improve the performance of Emergency Ambulance Service in the State, particularly in tribal districts and to meet the increasing demand for this service, the Odisha government through exclusive State budget funding, have made provision for additional 92 Ambulances under the 108 fleet.

The government also provided for up gradation of 28 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances to Advanced Life
Support (ALS) ambulances to strengthen the existing ambulance fleet.

Further, the government has made a budget provision of Rs 90 crore (over a period of five years) for these additional ambulances.

Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had dedicated 92 additional ambulances to people of Odisha on December 23 last year. Under the service, 24 ambulances were flagged off by him on the same day.

With launching of 26 ambulances in various districts today, the total number of ambulances reached 50. The remaining 42 vehicles of the fleet of 92 ambulances will be rolled out in final phase across the state.