*Minister Sudhakar mulls major revamp in 108 ambulance services*
*New contract terms to correct existing loopholes*
Bengaluru: Health and Medical Minister Dr.K.Sudhakar mulls major revamp in 108 ambulance services to ensure quality service across the state.
Ambulance services play a vital role during emergency situations. The current system has lot of loopholes and there is a need to correct these by adapting modern technology and global standard operating system, minister said.
State government is spending large amount of public money on but the quality of service is not proportinate to the cost. Our aim is to bring in a world class system which will become a role model for the entire country. Offcials have been instructed issue to give contract to companies which meet global standards while issuing new tenders, said minister.
Miniter held a meeting with Representatives of iDeck, experts and senior officials to deliberate upon the draft terms and conditions of the contract and issued directions.
*Directions issued by the Minister after discussion in the meeting*
Contract must be awarded through global tenders. The terms must be such that only such companies which are technically and financially strong can participate in the bidding process.
The terms in contarct should be based on geographical challenges rather than 1 lakh population. Ambulance should arrive within few minutes of receiving message or call.
The call centre should identify the nearest avialbale ambulance and allocate it. There should be trained staff who can provide first-aid. There should be app similar to Uber and Ola.
There was no competition when GVK was awarded contract. Now many companies have come forward to provide service. The fact that more than 20 companies have participated in the primary round of discussion is a proof of that.
GPS, biometric and call centre system must be robust. There is a need to study whether separate contract is required for vehicles and IT.
There will be better accountability if the period of contract is for 3 years. There are several instances in the past where people have used other vehicles after calling several times and unavailability of vehicles during emergency. Such instances should not repeat.
We do not need vehicles which look like ambulances but does not serve the puspose. Every rupee spent should be useful to public. There should be scope to cancel the contract if services are not satisfactory. Terms of contract must be designed carefully in such a way that it does not lead to litigations.
Representatives for iDeCK and Health Commissioner Pankaj Pandey were present in the meeting.
