Chennai: Seventy ambulances to be launched this week

Chennai:  Following a step by step process of preparing around 70 ambulances, all of them are scheduled to be launched within this week, said Prabhudoss B., head, marketing and hospital relations, GVK EMRI, which operates the 108 Helpline.

The ambulances which have completed the stage of quality check last week have all been parked at the yard behind the Tambaram Sanatorium. The vehicles were procured by the government as shells and bodies were built upon them, he said.

“The vehicles firstly undergo fabrication, which takes around 60 days, and are then sent for branding. All the vehicles cannot go for fabrication at the same time. Once the fabricated vehicle comes with the branding, it has to be parked in a safe location, preferably within a government property, after which the other steps, such as stuffing of medicines, are undertaken. It is a step-by-step process, which tends to take a lot of time. After all the steps are completed, they have to undergo quality check, before the launch,” he added.

The yard also has a number of old used vehicles, which have exceeded six years and found to be unfit to be an ambulance and have been withdrawn from 108 services and parked at TB Sanatorium for inspection by the government department to see if they can be used in other services maybe as mortuary vehicles or a in a service to drop patients back home.

 “Around 780 ambulances are on the road. Whenever a new ambulance comes into the government yard, the interiors need to be removed and fresh ones are to be done according to the 108 protocol. Such procedures tend to take time and require to be parked until completion,” said J. Radhakrishnan, Health Secretary of the state.