AP Government hires over 1,350 ambulances

Vijayawada: The state government has hired over 1,350 ambulances in 13 districts in order to cope with the workload.

These ambulances will be used to transport Covid positive persons from one hospital to another or from their residence to a hospital or Covid care centre.

The authorities have made it mandatory for the district collectors to hire at least two additional ambulances per mandal. If necessary, the collectors have been given the right to hire as many as needed, depending on the workload. In certain mandals, even 5-6 additional hospitals have been hired in order to provide better services to the citizens.

These ambulances will help the authorities implement the recently introduced 'referral system', as per which, the hospital referring the patient will have to arrange for an ambulance to transport the patient apart from informing the receiving hospital. To ensure smooth functioning, a call centre has been setup in every mandal. The local health workers, doctors and hospitals have been given the call centre number using which they could call for an ambulance.

Commissioner of the health and family welfare Katamaneni Bhaskar said, "We already have one 108 ambulance per mandal but due to the increased workload, in an attempt to decentralise things further, the districts have been instructed to hire at least two additional ambulances per mandal exclusively for transporting Covid positive persons.

These aren't critical patients. While the minimum is two per mandal, there is no upper limit. The districts have been given the right to hire as many as needed."