The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR, MARCH 5, 2022
The 108 Ambulance service completed nine years of its uninterrupted emergency service in Odisha on Saturday. Since the launch of the service in the State in March 2013, 108 Ambulances have ferried and saved more than 75 lakh valuable lives. Patients from both urban as well as rural areas of the State benefited from this service, a phenomenal achievement in offering emergency healthcare response services.
The service, which connects patients with health care institutions at the time of emergency, had been successful to render its service in several urban, rural as well as inaccessible remote locations.
Speaking on the occasion, Sabyasachi Biswal, State Head of Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd, the operating agency for 108 Ambulance services in Odisha said, “We are happy to complete nine successful years in providing ambulance service to the people of Odisha. We had started from a small fleet of 108 ambulances and now we have more than 1100 ambulances for the service in the State. It has served people across the state regardless of any ecological landscape they get calls from.”
“Our ambulance crew members have shown utmost devotion to duty in times of cyclone and other natural calamities. In the last nine years, we have evolved with more structured practices and are committed to improve our service to be more people friendly,” he added.
Currently, the operating agency hosts 1124 numbers of 108 ambulances in all 30 districts of Odisha for emergency medical services. Through 108 ambulance services, a total of 75,34,815 people have availed the service. Similarly, six 108 boat ambulances have been pressed into service for the people of waterlogged and cut-off areas of the state.
108 Ambulance services operate from a state-of -the-art facility in Bhubaneswar. A dedicated call centre of the agency has always been on their toes to receive calls from distressed patients and transport them to hospitals at the earliest possible time. The executives at the Bhubaneswar-based integrated center identify the exact location of the patient and assist them to get to the nearest available ambulance as soon as possible.
Ziqitza ensures that 108 ambulances are strategically located in the operational districts in such a way that the entire district can be covered within minimum time. The entire service – right from a person making a call to the necessary pre-hospital care in the ambulance and taking the victim to the nearest hospital – is absolutely free to every citizen in Odisha.
