GUWAHATI, July 21 � With the inauguration of the new extended emergency response centre of the Mrityunjoy-108 emergency medical service at the GVK EMRI Office at Sarusajai Sports Complex in the city on Tuesday, GVK EMRI, Assam now covers all the districts with a fleet strength of 280 ambulances.
The emergency service has so far saved 18,490 lives in the State and responded to over 4,49,840 emergencies. The new extended office was formally inaugurated by State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
�Our call response efficiency rate is 86 per cent, with an emergency call handling time of 121seconds only. Our ambulance assign time is 335seconds from the time of call. The confirmed emergency dispatch is 92 per cent. The emergency calls/lakh population/day is 5.26. Our Emergency Response Centre staff and the field staff have a high level of proficiency in local dialects,� an official release from the centre stated.
With the new capacity expansion of the in-house Emergency Response Centre, it now has a capacity to accommodate up to 150 staff/day to be able to handle up to 20,000 calls per day. With the increase in the call handling capacity, the threat of receiving more prank/hoax calls has also increased. �The negative impact of such calls in the unnecessary dispatch of vehicle to such calls which could lead to non-service of genuine calls if the vehicle remains busy for the hoax call patient. Also, the other impact is the incurred expenses as a vehicle gets dispatched on receiving a call,� an EMRI official said.
On the high brand value of Mrityunjoy-108, the official said that it was the first toll-free number in case of any emergency reach across urban and rural areas. �We have state-of-the-art stabilized infrastructure in IT, R&D, training and capacity building in emergency management services. Most importantly we have built up an effective network and close relationship with hospitals (both government and private), police and fire services,� he said.
GVK EMRI has a five-year rich experience in emergency response services. It is India�s only integrated emergency response service provider for medical, police and fire emergencies. GVK EMRI provides resuscitation with basic and advanced life support in pre-hospital care and also in handling emergency situations. GVK EMRI responds to a 433 million covered population in nine States of the country. The ambulance reaches within 15 minutes in urban areas and within 25 minutes in rural areas on an average, subject to road condition. The team of emergency response physicians provides 24x7 back-up support to field operations. A highly competent professional team runs the EM services since last five years.
GVK EMRI has also received global recognition and awards for its commitment and leadership in emergency care. The awards include �The Presidential NENA Awards-2007�, �Microsoft Citizenship Partner of the Year Award, 2007�, �Nasscom � CNBC IT User Award, 2008� and the HEAL award for �Demonstrating Leadership in Emergency Care � 2009.�
At present its operations span the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya and Madhya Pradesh.
