Question : EMERGENCY MEDICAL TRANSPORT AMBULANCE SERVICES

(a) the present status and essential features of emergency medical transport facilitiesincluding ambulance services in the country, State/UT-wise;

(b) whether the Government has conducted any study/survey/evaluation of emergency medical transport/ambulance service;

(c) if so, the details thereof along with the shortcoming noticed and the corrective measures taken by the Government in this regard;

(d) the pattern adopted for financing the project along with the funds/financial assistance provided by the Government for the purpose during each of the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise; and

(e) whether the Union Government has received some proposals from State Governments for financial assistance for further implementation of the scheme and if so, the details thereof along with present status of the proposals, State/UT-wise?

THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI GHULAM NABI AZAD)

(a):Public Health is a state subject. Under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), financial support is provided to States/UTs to strengthen their health systems including for emergency medical transport of patients based on the requirement posed by the State/UTs in their Programme Implementation Plans. The present status of patient transport including Ambulance Services supported under NRHM in the country is placed at Annexure-I

(b) &(c): Evaluations of Emergency response systems (ERS) in the states were undertaken by MoHFW though National Health Systems Resource Centre such as:

I.Study of EMRI Model in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh in 2009

II.Study of MMU-104 services in 2011

III.Study of ERS services in three districts of Andhra Pradesh in 2011

IV.Study of Haryana SwasthyaVahanSeva in 2012

V.Study of EMRI in Haryana and Andhra Pradesh in 2012

VI.Study of ERS services in Kerala in 2013

VII.Study of ERS services in Punjab in 2013

The evaluations have primarily pointed out the improvement in access to healthcare brought about by the Emergency Response Services under the NRHM. One of the major recommendations is that the number of ambulances be increased to one per 60,000 – 80,000 population as against the existing norm of one ambulance per lakh population so as to ensure that effective service capacity is higher than the ambulances work load The shortcomings mainly related to operational issues like fake calls, duplicate calls, call drops and monitoring time taken to reach the patient.

(d):Under NRHM, the capital cost for emergency response transport is fully supported while the operational cost is supported on a diminishing scale of 60% in the first year, 40% in the second year and 20% from third year onwards. For patient transport vehicles primarily used to transport pregnant women for institutional delivery, both the capital and operational costs is fully supported.

The funds/financial assistance approved for the purpose during each of the last three years and the current year, State/UT wise is placed at Annexure-II.

(e):Proposals have been received from most States/UTs for implementation of the scheme in their Programme Implementation Plans in the current year. The details and the current status of the proposals are at Annexure III.