Hyderabad: Even as the 108 emergency ambulance and medical services are facing a fund-crunch in Telangana with meagre funds allocated in the State Budget, the State government seems to be unmoved. The State government has come out with a new plan to introduce 80 Advanced Life Support (ALS) ‘ICU on Wheels’ ambulances. This is in addition to government’s decision on enhancing the existing fleet of 316 ambulances (108) to 516 in the current financial year.  

In his written reply to a question on 108 Ambulance services, State Health Minister C Laxma Reddy said  government has decided to increase the number of 108 ambulances in order to meet a stipulation of one ambulance for every 75,000 population in the State. As such, the total number of ambulances that will be made available will be 506.  The Health department has decided to utilise the latest advances in communication technology to improve the optimum utilisation of fleet by using GPS tracking to closely monitor their operation on the ground from dedicated call centres, the Minister said.

Source: THI