Baby boy delivered in Shimla ambulance
By IANSWednesday, January 19, 2011
SHIMLA - A baby boy was delivered in ‘108′ Atal Swasthya Sewa, an ambulance service launched by the Himachal Pradesh government last month, an official said here Wednesday.
“A baby was delivered in ambulance when a pregnant woman was on her way to a hospital in Shimla last (Tuesday) evening. The delivery was conducted by an emergency medical technician (EMT),” a spokesperson for GVK-EMRI (Emergency Management Research Institute), a Hyderabad-based company hired by the government to run the ambulance service, told IANS.
The state has tied up with GVK-EMRI under a public-private partnership mode to run the ambulance service in the state. The project is jointly funded by the National Rural Health Mission and the state government.
He said the ambulance picked up the woman, who was in labour pains, from Totu, on the outskirts of Shimla, to drop her at the Rippon Hospital.
“Sensing emergency, the EMT asked the ambulance driver to park the vehicle on roadside and conducted the delivery. The woman and her newborn baby were later admitted to the hospital,” he said.
“The mother and the child are doing well,” he added.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Dec 25 last year - the birthday of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee - launched the free ambulance service to provide timely medical aid to people in emergencies.
The residents in Shimla, Sirmaur, Solan, Una, Hamirpur, Kangra and Bilaspur districts have been getting the round-the-clock ambulance service by calling at a toll free number 108.
The service would be extended to the remaining districts, except Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti districts, by March.
The ambulances are furnished with life-saving equipment like automatic external defibrillator and drugs like anti-snake venom.
All the ambulances are equipped with global positioning system. An ambulance takes 25 minutes to reach a person in urban areas and 35 minutes in the rural areas.
Himachal Pradesh is the 11th state in the country and the second in north India after Uttarakhand to start this service.
The idea for the emergency response service in the state was conceived in December 2007 soon after the Bharatiya Janta Party came to power.
