CATS ambulances yet to hit city roads

Even though the Delhi government had inaugurated 53 new CATS ambulances on July 3, all the new vehicles are yet to hit the road. While some ambulances of the new fleet were rolled out in the last two days, others would be accessible for patients from Friday.

The Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) started rolling out the vehicles only from Tuesday onwards. The government had decided to not roll out the vehicles as it decided to send the vehicles for a thorough inspection to ascertain that there was no manufacturing defect in these ambulances, said a senior administrative official, CATS. This came after two ambulances were destroyed in a fire two days before the Delhi government was to launch the first 55 of the 110-fleet CATS ambulances.

The new fleet is in addition to the existing 151 ambulances operating in the capital.
The fire started from one of the ambulances parked in the campus of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS).

“The government wanted to ensure that no such incident is repeated and sent it to the two companies involved in the manufacturing so that all the vehicles could be reviewed before it hit the streets. So there was delay in rolling out the vehicles after the inauguration as the project was put on hold till the review was completed,” said a senior CATS official.

“According to the reports received so far, there was no manufacturing defect with the vehicles. The fire started due to external reasons. The department is currently assessing the report submitted by the two companies,” said the official.

The two companies awarded the contract are Bafna Healthcare Pvt Ltd and Tata Motors. The vehicles gutted in fire together cost Rs 23 lakh.

The Delhi government is now planning to launch the remaining 55 ambulances in September.

“Fifty-five of the total 110 ambulances will now be rolled out next month. This new fleet will comprise 10 ambulances which will have advanced life equipment. This will help handle emergency cases in which patients need critical care,” said the official.
According to the CATS department, the revamped helpline 102 started attracting over 30 % more calls as compared to before with more staff being pressed into service and a new control room in place.

“The number of calls has now stabilised after the initial spike in calls. Once the entire fleet is launched, the department will start publicising the helpline more so that more people are made aware of the services,” said the official.

Under the new system once patients call up the 102 helpline, the calls would be auto-traced to the location from where the patient is calling and the ambulance would be sent to the spot immediately.

The patient would be taken to the nearest hospital with beds available.