GUWAHATI, Oct 20 - While people turn to Mrityunjoy 108 emergency response services at critical hours, there are others who play pranks, dialling 108 for fun or non-emergency purposes. In the last one year, of the calls received by the emergency response team in the State, 64.26 per cent were hoax calls.
�While we do our best to provide ambulance on time to the people, we also expect the society to act responsibly in calling for services or towards their treatment to our pilots and other team members,� said Shantanu Sarma, head of 108 and Adarani services.
�While some are busy making prank calls, another person in critical condition might not get help on time. After an intervention from our side, the frequency of such hoax calls has come down to 64 per cent from 70 per cent last year,� he added.
Acknowledging the need to incorporate more ambulances in emergency services, GVK EMRI officials said that a proposal to increase the number of vehicles in the 102 service is pending with the government.
Since November 2008, a total of 37, 28,777 emergency calls have been received under Mrityunjoy service and it has attended to 25,12,861 emergency calls, saving more than 11,7,094 lives. Moreover, 14,822 babies were also born inside Mrityunjoy 108 ambulances during the period.
To cope with the emergency situation during the Durga Puja rush, the emergency response service team has come up with some necessary operational preparedness. An increase in manpower in emergency response centres based on the projected call-flow during peak hours, has been initiated and the team is being trained to cope with the heavy load of follow-up calls.
Requesting people to treat the 108 Mrityunjoy ambulance team as their fellow brothers and sisters, the GVK EMRI authorities added that in case of any complaints, instead of assaulting the ambulance crew, people can lodge complaints by dialling 108.
