Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister today launched a new mobile application for ‘108’ emergency services in the State.

The new app will provide latitude and longitude details of caller to Emergency Response Centre(ERC) through google map. This will save time, and operator at ERC will not need to ask location details manually. Caller, hospital and ERC will have real time details of location and expected time of arrival of ambulance on digital screens. Details of nearest government/private hospital and blood bank will be available to caller, driver and ERC digitally. A patient’s relative will get details of hospital to which he is taken through app. Thanks to this app, ERC will be able to identify and move the nearest ambulance available. ERC will be able to record exact time of journey between the place of incident to hospital with details of actual distance in kilometers. Medical care given to patient in ambulance and details of location, time, patient’s name etc will be recorded in digital mode. Such digital data will be useful in research and training. At present data of around one lakh beneficiary patients/month is noted down manually in hard copy. Detail of patient will be available to hospital in advance with live location detail of ambulance on way and expected time of arrival. The app has also feedback facility. Through this app, the driver will get real time details of traffic and shortest route. The app has details of 4,000 hospitals with type of treatment they offer. This will help driver/patient to choose perfect nearest medical facility.

Speaking on this occasion, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the government not only operates ‘108’ service but also upgrades it with newer facilities. Newer equipment and devices are added to ambulances. Ambulances that complete one lakh kilometers and nee replacement are replaced with newer ones. The State government has approved purchase of new ambulances for fresh addition and replacement to old ones. Nitin Patel said he as Finance and Health minister always approve greater budget for this cause. He said the service started with 50 ambulances in 2007, and after 11 years there are 585 ‘108’ ambulances in the State. Patel pointed out that entire service is free contrary to private/hospital owned/trust owned ambulance services.

‘There were complains that patients were taken to private hospitals through ‘108’ ambulances, in response to which directive was issued that patients should be taken to government facilities. However, recently, the government has made treatment upto Rs 50,000 free in any private/public hospital in first 48 hours in road accident cases. A new directive is therefore issued that patients should be taken to nearest facility, be it government or private,’ said Nitin Patel. Patel said the app has been developed for free by a citizen who is into business of app development.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in his address said, the app should be downloaded by all. It has five modules that are interconnected. Rupani said the government has started Khilkhilat ambulance service for kids, Dhanvantari rath service for labourers and another ambulance service for animals in order to offer health security. On the occasion, Rupani flagged-off 10 new ‘108’ ambulances and announced to add 125 new ambulances to the existing fleet of 585 ‘108’ ambulances by the end of this year.

Speaking in this function, Commissioner of Health, Medical Services & Principal Secretary to Government,Health & Family Welfare
Department (Public Health & Family Welfare) Dr. Jayanti Ravi said that this initiative is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India mission.

DeshGujarat