Free emergency paramedic service

by Rohana Jayalal

Sri Lanka is launching an emergency paramedic service with the backing of India where accident victims and those needing life-saving medical treatment are stabilized and taken to hospital within 30 minutes.

The service was launched at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo recently.

The Emergency Response project will deploy nearly 300 ambulances countrywide.

The life-saving social service was finalised during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka earlier this year. The service will be free for Sri Lankans in every part of the island.

It will have a fleet of ultra-modern and fully equipped ambulances manned by trained paramedics and powered by the latest software through a central command unit. The service is in response to the considerable increase in medical emergencies.

Director-General, Health Services, Dr. Palitha Mahipala said that the country had good health indicators and tax-payer-funded hospitals that gave medical care without fees but there was no paramedic service to give pre-hospital care.

This ambulance service would play a key role in strengthening the country's pre-hospital healthcare service, he said.

Indian High Commissioner Y.K Sinha said, "Under phase one of the project, costing $ 7.56 million, the emergency ambulance service will be provided throughout the Western and Southern Provinces with 88 ambulances.

The second stage of the project will cover the Central, Eastern, Uva and Sabaragamuwa Provinces with 109 ambulances. The third phase will cover the entire country by providing 68 ambulances to the North Central, North Western and Northern Provinces.

The fourth and final phase of the project will be three months after the receipt of funds on January 1, 2017 adding 32 more ambulances in the Western and Southern Provinces.

Sinha said that 600 emergency personnel will be trained in India by GVK Emergency Response Institute, to run the service.

The Institute, a non-profit organization, operates the service in India as a public-private partnership.

The paramedics will be sent as soon as anyone calls the emergency number 119.

They will be in contact with a doctor and provide emergency treatment including oxygen and cardiac care so that the patient could be stabilized and taken to hospital.