PANAJI: During the lockdown period entire emergency management system 108 ambulance service run by GVK EMRI was on their toes and transported as many as 353 pregnant women and also attended to nearly 67,000 calls during March and April this year.
During the lockdown, entire emergency management system 108 ambulance service run by GVK EMRI was on their toes and the emergency response centre received 35,000 calls for March and 320,00 calls for April 2020.
Speaking to GT, GVK EMRI 108 State Head Sushma Saini said, "During the lockdown period since March 25, we able to drop 142 pregnant women along with the infant and in April 2020 we able to drop 211 pregnant women."
Since the launch of 108 ambulance service in the State in September 2008, the GVK EMRI staff handled 35,715 pregnancy cases and also assisted 872 delivery at the scene or in ambulances.
Last month, the staff assisted a delivery in the ambulance even as the woman delivered twins.
The 108 ambulance also ferried all seven patients from the isolation ward to the COVID Hospital after they were tested positive last month. Even in two cases the patients were transported from their residence.
In the war against deadly coronavirus pandemic, not only health workers and doctors were taking the lead, but ambulance EMT’s (emergency medical technicians) and drivers were always on the move to attend medical emergencies are also on the forefront, Saini stated.
The Government of Goa announced 104 Health line as a single point of contact for the enquiries related to COVID-19 and within two months they received a total of 24,542 calls. Of these 17,293 calls were answered in March and and 7249 calls were answered in April.
The GVK EMRI staff with the help of Goa Medical College (GMC) doctors assisted 7518 messages aftr the Goa government launched 104 Whatsapp number.
In Goa, GVK EMRI operates 101 fleet of ambulances which includes advanced life support (ALS), basic life support (BLS), CCA, neo-natal, motorcycle ambulances, VVIP, hearse vans and drop-back.
According to Saini, Goa is the only State when GVK EMRI is opeating all advanced life support ambulances even as it was opeating in 17 States.