The Greater Chennai Corporation has decided to strengthen its patient transportation system by increasing the number of ambulances by 40 and take steps to reduce the response time to less than five minutes.
At present, the city has a fleet of 80 ambulances, which would be increased to 120 in three or four days, officials said.
Many patients with severe acute respiratory illness and breathlessness had reportedly died because of the delay in taking them to hospitals. Nearly 500 residents died because of such delays, the officials said. The city has so far reported 2,032 deaths due to COVID-19.
Stressing the need for a proper transportation system during the pandemic, Corporation Commissioner G. Prakash on Monday held a meeting with representatives from other agencies, including the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project.
The civic officials advised those in charge of ambulance service to take action against drivers who delayed transporting patients to hospitals.
Residents have been requested to call Corporation volunteers, sanitary inspectors or the zonal assistant health officials to transport patients with breathlessness. The volunteers, led by sanitary inspectors and ward-level officials, will coordinate with ambulance workers and arrange transport.
Residents can also call 108 to seek transportation of patients to hospitals, said a senior official of the Corporation’s health department. The residents have been requested to call Ripon Buildings control room numbers such as 044-46122300 to report any delay during the pandemic.
At the meeting on Monday, senior officials managing 108 ambulance services confirmed that they had increased the number of ambulances with oxygen support system to 70 as against 40 earlier. All the ambulances in the city would get oxygen support system by Tuesday, the officials said.
Oxygen support
Many residents had complained of lack of oxygen support in ambulances during the pandemic. Till recently, over 50% of the ambulances did not have oxygen support, the officials said. Mr. Prakash has asked them to strengthen the fleet of vehicles meant to transport patients to 24 COVID-19 care centres and the seven screening centres, the officials added.