No sign of medical response system

“The draft bill is almost ready. We have to make some changes following problems that Gujarat faced after adopting our model,” said Dr Sanjay Bijwe,officer on special duty,Medical Education and Drug Department. He said the Bill would be introduced in the Assembly during its March session.

Dr Bijwe is in charge of drafting the EMS Bill. “Enacting the law is the second step,” he added. “Currently more than the Act,we need to conduct a pilot study with one of the existing ambulance service providers to check if such a model is feasible.”

The absence of enough ambulances at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on the night of 26/11 prompted volunteers to pile up the injured on handcarts and in taxies to ferry them to St George Hospital. Only two private providers have an ambulance stationed in each administrative ward of the city. Government ambulances are still stationed on hospital premises,stretching response time.

“In 14 states,governments have invited tenders for a public-private partnership to run an ambulance network. The need of the hour is to consolidate ambulances into one number,” said Sweta Mangal,CEO of 1298,a private ambulance service,adding that clear specifications on the type of vehicles and equipment inside should also be made.

“Every city should have its own emergency medical council that will take care of the entire pre-hospitalisation procedure and also hear complaints. The council should also train paramedics,” said Dr Bijwe. “The council will comprise of stakeholders from ambulance service providers,doctors from private and public hospitals.”