Speaker Meeting – Sept 19th

Mr. Prabhudoss B., Head of Marketing and Hospital Relations, Emergency Management and Responses Institute (EMRI), better known as 108, spoke to the members on how the 108 ambulance service works.

Very interesting insight into a service we see very often and understand very little about.

The service was started as a partnership between Satyam and the TN government and later on the Satyam role was taken over by GVK. The service runs across many states in the country and is moving to cover all states soon.

It is a totally free,world class service, run professionally in every aspect of service, starting from when a call is received. The backend unit is manned by 100 people. Given that the unit deals with emergencies, a call made to them is picked, in max of 2 rings, but ideally on zero ring. Two members even tried testing this delivery promise and were not let down.

Each vehicle has a team of two trained people – a pilot (the driver) and a paramedic. The ambulance is equipped with a set of hand tools to help deal with any emergency. The ambulance is equipped with 4 types of stretchers to deal with different injuries. A set of ambulances are now available to deal with only pediatric needs.

Another interesting bit of information shared was that 108 is an emergency response service that can be used for Medical, Police and Fire emergencies.

Another interesting service that EMRI offers is the 104 call in service that helps people with other medical support such as identification of closest medical facility and even pharmacies.

closest medical facility and even pharmacies. In case one is injured  at a  remote location, and calls 104, the person will be informed of the closest medical facility, an ambulance will be arranged and the identified medical facility, PHC, hospital, etc.  will be informed of the patients arrival. The service will call back and confirm to the patient/family that they have reached out to the hospital/PHC and will also inform the name of the doctor who will be waiting to attend to the patient. hospital/PHC and will also inform the name of the doctor who will be waiting to attend to the patient.

Mr. Prabhudoss, wanted the club to visit the backend facility to see for ourselves how they run their unit and experience the energy around the center.