Motorists obstructing ambulances will pay penalty: Manish Sisodia

New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday said motorists obstructing the way of ambulances carrying patients to hospitals in the national capital would have to pay a penalty of Rs 2,000.

Sisodia, who along with Health Minister Satyendar Jain, flagged off a fleet of ambulances equipped with state-of-the- art gadgetry as part of Delhi government’s ‘Home to Hospital Care’ emergency medical response service, said people should be sensitive towards such emergency situations.

“It’s equally important for people to be sensitive towards such emergency situations. Each ambulance will have a camera to record the vehicles in front of it. Those who do not give way to a rushing ambulance will have to pay Rs 2,000 as penalty,” he said.

He also inaugurated a high-tech control room in Shakarpur here which is capable of handling 5,000 medical distress calls daily.

Centralised Ambulance Trauma Services (CATS), the nodal agency for the project to provide free emergency ambulance service, has procured 110 new ambulances having life-saving equipment. Each ambulance has been provided with tablet computers for easy navigation and to enter patient details enabling advance notice to the hospitals about the patients.

“This is the first time in India that such a world-class technology-led control room has been set up. It will coordinate the working of the ambulances and provide real-time management of emergency situations for people of Delhi,” Sisodia said.

He also said the government was planning to bring the fire brigade service and other disaster management services under the aegis of the new control room for a coordinated response to emergencies. The emergency response system can be reached with mobile app ‘Call 102’.