Andhra Pradesh: 108 ambulance officials given two weeks\' time to improve services

VIJAYAWADA: Principal secretary (Health) M.T. Krishna Babu on Wednesday expressed concern over poor performance of 108 services in the state. He directed authorities concerned to improve their services within two weeks’ time.

The senior official had been reviewing functioning of 108 and 104 ambulance services with health commissioner J. Nivas and Aarogyasri Trust chief executive officer Harinidar Prasad here. He asked why the IT wing of 108 services is unable to support the services properly when they had been quite efficient in the past. He directed Aarogyasri CEO to arrange a new IT partner to streamline the services.

Krishna Babu questioned private agency representatives on measures taken to improve 108 services. He wondered why there has been an inordinate delay in getting these ambulances repaired. Further, of 748 ambulances, 164 did not have the GPS facility. He ordered private operators to provide services as per the tender agreement.

The top official also asked why 108 ambulances are not available on call. He underlined that sufficient number of them must be available, so that they can be made available on call during emergencies.

Krishna Babu directed Aarogyasri CEO to go for retendering of 108 services if the present agency is unable to perform well.