Arogya Kavacha or 108 ambulance services is a free round-the-clock service for citizens of the State and was launched in 2008 by former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. Many times, a life is lost due to lack of timely medical aid and the poor response by government agencies to such emergency situations. This requires a coordinated response from multiple agencies like police, fire and medical services, for which the State government conceived the Arogya Kavacha (108) scheme.
How does 108 work?
On receiving a call, the communication officer collects facts about the nature of emergency and the despatch officer assigns a strategically located vehicle (ambulance/police/fire) to reach the site. The Emergency Management team provides pre-hospital care while transporting patient/victim to appropriate hospital for stabilization under virtual supervision of an Emergency Care Response Physician (ERCP) accessible over mobile phone.
The 108 Emergency Response Services has also signed memorandum od understanding (MoU) with over 6,800 hospitals which provide initial stabilization free of cost for the first 24 hours. Implementation of Arogya Kavacha
The Arogya Kavacha Scheme has been implemented successfully under Public-Private Partnership with Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI), Secunderabad. EMRI is a professionally managed body and has proven technology and software and offers an integrated total turnkey solution. EMRI has been allotted a three-digit number – 108 by the Government of India and made it toll-free across the State for all emergencies and can be accessed from landline and mobile without prefixing area code.
Every emergency call made to 108 will be attended to by the emergency team in the call centre which ensures that the ambulance with paramedical staff and necessary equipment reaches the spot and necessary pre-hospitalization care is rendered to stabilize the victim/patient before being shifted to a hospital. The professionally managed organization provides comprehensive emergency management response services (medical, health care, police and fire) and is envisaged to be run on a no-loss-no-profit basis. The total cost of implementation of this scheme is Rs 221.25 crore from the period 2008-09 to 2010-11.
Project’s progress
Till now, the state has deployed 517 ambulances out of which 130 are Advance Life Support ambulances (ALS) and the remaining 387 Basic Life Support Ambulances (BLS). The ambulances cover all the 30 districts. Each ambulance caters to a population of about one lakh to 1.1 lakh. Deployment of 517 ambulances also translates to a per trip distance of about 25 km which results in transportation of the patient/victim within the ‘golden hour’.