CK Birla launches ambulance services in Kolkata

The fleet was launched at the CK Birla Hospitals premises (the campus that houses both The Calcutta Medical Research Institute and BM Birla Heart Research Centre) by esteemed guests including Chandrima Bhattarcharjee, Minister-of-State, Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal, Sovan Chatterjee, Mayor, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Surajit Kar Purkayastha, Commissioner of Police,  Kolkata.

 

This fleet of eight ambulances will aim to provide basic life support within 30 minutes of receiving a call for an ambulance in a highly cost effective service. Moreover, each ambulance will have on board a Paramedic and a Pilot; both trained in basic life support and safe medical excavation procedures.

 

In the first phase of the ambulance project, the ambulances will be placed at various strategically significant locations within a 30 kilometre radius from the CK Birla Hospitals (i.e. BM Birla Heart Research Centre and The Calcutta Medical Research Institute). The first fleet of ambulances would be stationed at Howrah, Victoria Memorial, Park Circus, Sarat Bose Road, Hazra, Rabindra Sarovar, and Joka.

 

The newly set up 24X7 Emergency Response Centre will ensure that every call is answered by a human voice within 2 rings. Once the call is registered, the call centre personnel will identify the closest ambulance to the victim or patient and dispatch. The BLS Ambulances will then be able to reach the site within 30 minutes. 

 

These ambulances will help take emergency medical response to the next level where patients will not have to wait to reach a hospital to receive medical attention. Very often due to bad road and traffic conditions it takes longer than the ‘golden hour’ to administer the first line of medical care to the patient, thus adversely impacting the survival chances of the patient. With this new fleet, medical care will be administered on the spot by the highly trained paramedics. These paramedics will be guided by doctors at the hospital via live video streaming. 

 

The ambulances are equipped with live audio video screening facility that could connect the ambulance to the team of emergency care doctors at the hospital. This unique facility would also enable the team at the hospital to be aptly prepared for the arriving patient, thereby mitigating any delays in the medical care. Along with Video monitoring the ambulances are also equipped to transmit information like ECGs and other vital parameters to the medical staff and hence treatment for conditions like myocardial infarction and stroke can start within the ambulance without wasting any time.