MINUTES after Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ashok Bhat made the inaugural call to emergency services number, 108, the Emergency Management and Research Institute’s call centre at Civil Hospital received its first distress call from the family members of a 35-year-woman, Leela Parmar, a resident of Narangpura, saying she was was hysterical and was suffering from a weakness of limbs.
Dr Saumil Vala, Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) said, “The first call was much quicker than we expected and we had to rush from the inaugural function itself.”
By 7.30 pm they were at Parmar’s apartment and three minutes later, she and her family were shifted to the ambulance.
Dr Vala got in touch with the Emergency Response Centre Physcian (ERCP) who then started keeping track of the patient’s situation.
With the guidance of the ERCP and Dr Vala’s efforts, the patient’s condition became stable during the journey to V S Hospital. By 8 pm Leela Parmar was admitted to the hospital and the EMRI team headed back towards the base.
On the first night of the launch of the toll-free 108 emergency services in the State, the EMRI control centre received a flurry of calls. Kishore YNS lead Partner National Programme and head of the Gujarat operations said, “We received a total of 449 calls till Thursday afternoon. Most of these were enquiry calls to check whether the number has become functional and congratulatory calls on the launch of the service. We attended 8 medical emergencies and one police emergency during the period.”
Kishore YNS says, “We are committed to our motto of sense, reach and care. We want 108 to become synonymous with emergencies. Our technology is capable of handling 100,000 calls every day.”
(The real name of the patient has not been used)