Hussain Saify
Hyderabad: A large sparkling new fleet of 1,088 ambulances was seen in Vijayawada today as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to give a big boost to the Health Department in times of COVID.
The ambulance service in new vehicles would come to life from Thursday. Right now the spectacular sight of the fleet could be seen stationed at the Benz Circle of Vijayawada.
In the meantime, coronavirus pandemic in the State has registered 13,891 confirmed cases. Of this 6,232 have recovered while 180 victims have died. On Wednesday the state registered 793 new cases.
It was only in May that Andhra Pradesh had announced a budget of Rs 16,200 crore for healthcare.
Of the total 1,088 vehicles some would be used as 104 ambulance service for rural Andhra Pradesh and the others as 108 for urban areas.
Of the fleet, 412 vehicles to become a part of 108 ambulance service. As far as 104 service is concerned it has two types of services to carry out. Two hundred and eighty-two vehicles used for advance life support services and the remaining as Mobile Medical Units (MMU). The nature of service for the remaining vehicles will be decided soon.
The new ambulances are going to have features like ventilators, syringe pumps, infusion pumps, facilities for delivery and oxygen cylinders. To maintain transparency, the vehicles would have surveillance camera.
There would also be Mobile Medical Units (MMU) to cater in the remote parts rural areas. The ambulances will also cover anganwadi schools, government schools and general needy persons in the village.
Rs 201 crore has been used for this project.