In a major boost to the campaign against infant mortality rate, the GVK-Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) ‘108’ ambulance service will now pick up newborn babies in critical condition from their home itself.
Till now, the ambulances were primarily used to transfer babies from primary or secondary care hospital to a tertiary care hospital. This service will benefit pre-term babies, underweight babies and those born with congenital conditions.
This has been made possible, thanks to the recent increase in the fleet of neo-natal ambulances. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on June 12 commissioned 13 neo-natal ambulances, taking the total to 66. Of these, 54 have already been deployed and rest would also be done within the next two months as soon as the staffers are trained and locations identified. This makes Tamil Nadu the State with highest number of neo-natal ambulances in public sector, B. Prabhudoss, Regional Manager (Tamil Nadu), ‘108’ GVK-EMRI Ambulance Service, told The Hindu on Monday.
The neo-natal ambulance service was an initiative driven by the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project and the Institute of Child Health. The GVK-EMRI has a total fleet strength of 751 ambulances in Tamil Nadu.
These ambulances would be stationed at locations that bridge the gaps in the existing network. As many as 28,362 children have been handled since the first neo-natal ambulance was launched in June 2011 at Chennai.Ventilators
Further, Mr. Prabhudoss said that the service was also going to equip all its neo-natal ambulances with ventilators. Breathing difficulties are common immediately after birth and during the first few hours after delivery. These ambulances are already equipped with baby warmers, incubator that provide warmth and maintain constant temperature, multi-para monitors, pulsoxymeter, suction apparatus and specially designed stretchers mounted with portable oxygen cylinders
Mr. Prabhudoss said that the neo-natal ambulances now cover all the 32 districts in the State. The western districts alone have 12 neo-natal ambulances, which have benefitted 3,918 children so far. They include one each for Coimbatore, Tirupur, Namakkal and the Nilgiris besides two each for Erode, Salem, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri.
Tamil Nadu now has largest fleet of
neo-natal ambulances in the country
