Within a year, Norka ambulances attend 175 cases

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Exactly a year into its launch, the state government’s ‘emergency ambulance service’ for non-resident Keralites (NRKs), which provide free transportation of dead bodies or for those seeking medical treatment, has so far catered to 175 families. Transportation is facilitated from airports in Kerala to hospitals or to houses.
Except for a few patients, who applied for the free ambulance service, the service was provided mainly for transporting mortal remains of NRKs flown down from around 15 countries across the world. With the recent launch of Norka Root’s global contact centre (GCC) in Kochi – providing a toll-free number for calling from abroad - the service is expected to reach out to more number of NRKs in the coming years.
“This small initiative has turned out to be one with a big impact. There are more Keralites out there toiling in several countries who welcome such small gestures from the government,” said a Norka (non-resident Keralites’ affairs) department official.
The wider acceptance of the scheme, which was launched in July, 2018, with the support of Indian Medical Association (IMA), has also pointed at the rise in number of Keralites dying in other countries every year. “This is only a very small percentage of Malayalis who die abroad. Besides, not all mortal remains get repatriated. This could be an eye-opener for taking policy decisions and establishing more schemes for NRKs,” the official pointed out.
Majority of the dead bodies came from Saudi Arabia, the figures revealed, and the residing countries included UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, US, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, UK, New Zealand, Sudan and South Africa. “The launch of global contact centre providing a toll-free number (00918802012345) for calling from abroad has enhanced the number of requests considerably,” the official added.
Though the free service was launched hoping that it would be beneficial for financially weak NRKs, it is offered to all irrespective of their financial status. Even those residing in other Indian states are also making use of the facility and the toll-free number for calling from India is 18004253939.
With the commissioning of Kannur International Airport, the service is now covering all the four airports in the state. Once the Norka call centre receives a request, it will get forwarded to the coordination desk of the IMA for sending ambulances to respective airports. “Upon request, the ambulance even picks up relatives from their house for receiving the patient/mortal remains from airport, before taking them back to the house or a hospital,” said the official.
A long-pending demand from NRKs, especially those working in Gulf countries, the scheme was launched after the government allocated Rs 55 lakh from Norka’s plan fund. The Norka Roots had also carried out a trial run of the service for 10 days, during which five families availed of the service.