The Centre is all set to launch an ambitious pilot project in Rajasthan under its flagship National Health Mission (NHM) wherein the 108 toll-free helpline for ambulances will be able to track the caller's location, ensuring quick medical assistance, mostly during golden hour (first 60 minutes), in emergency situations.
“Currently, lot of time is wasted in looking for location of the patients in need of critical care. To save the time, we are in talks with Google and telecom operators to make it possible to trace the location of the caller soon after a call is received. GVK, which is presently operating 108 services in Rajasthan, is also being roped in under the project,” said Manoj Jhalani, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry. On a public-private partnership basis, the State health department and GVK have been operating around 740 ambulances in Rajasthan.
Once successful, we will replicate the project in other States as well, he added. There are over 23,000 such ambulances operating in the country.
Presently, whenever a caller makes the call on helpline, it is received by the call centre. The operator at the call centre takes the address details from the caller who is then conected to the ambulance driver. Till the ambulance reaches to the location, the driver has to call up the caller several times about the exact location.
But the scenario may soon change, said Jhalani adding, “under the new system, as soon as a caller calls on 108 helpline number, the call centre operator will be able to track his/her location coordinate with the help of signals from the telecom towers. The shortest route will be identified, helping the nearest driver to reach at the correct location in the shortest time.”
Also, the Android platform provided by the google will also be utilized where longitude and latitude of the callers can be identified. The official said that since the facility pertains to the emergency service, issues like privacy should not be a big issue.
“We have written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to look into the privacy concerns,” Jhalani said.
Naveen Jain, Mission Director, NHM, Rajasthan, said, “Presently, the response time varies from five minutes to 40 minutes depending on the location, network and many other issues. With the identification of the caller location, we can save crucial time and save the lives which can be pregnant women or road accident victims.”