Mumbai: Due to rising traffic the Maharashtra government said it will launch motorbike ambulances in Mumbai from next year with a view to cut time for patients needing instant response and medical treatment during an accident or any emergency.
The health minister Deepak Sawant and British trade and investment minister Lord Francis Maude signed The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect.
The effort is to allow the victims of accident or any emergency access to medical care in the “platinum 10” minutes to provide care to the affected rather than the “golden hour”. Sawant said.
“The four-wheel ambulances find it difficult to negotiate through the city’s congested roads. Doctors or paramedics riding bikes can cut through heavy traffic because of their manoeuvrability” he added.
The two-wheeled ambulances, which will reach the patients and accident victims stuck in congested areas or roads with heavy traffic and take the victims at the nearest hospital in the shortest possible time. These ambulances are placed at hot spots in the cities.
Maude said the MoU will help strengthen relations between England and Maharashtra in the healthcare sector. And expand health care in rural areas.
“The state will benefit from the advanced technology from Britain who will guide the state administration to keep digital records of patients. Doctors and nurses will be trained and health care centres in rural areas will be strengthened,” he added.