Sri Lanka launch first free pre-hospital care ambulance service with Indian grant

[Godman]

Sri Lanka launch first free pre-hospital care ambulance service with Indian grant
LBO
Posted on July 28, 2016 | In Pictures

(PRESS RELEASE) – In a groundbreaking initiative, the country’s very first fully fledged free pre-hospital care ambulance service numbering a collective of 88 state of the art fully equipped vehicles was flagged off at Galle Face Green. To be operated initially in the Southern province with the service rolled out into the Western Province within a fortnight, the ambulance service is trailblazing on many fronts.

Under the direct intervention of Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, this is the first time India has presented an outright grant of US $7.6 Mn to Sri Lanka to uplift and improve medical facilities in the country on this front. This expounds the depth and scope of the world class ambulances as well as the training and development extended to Sri Lankans in ensuring that best possible care is extended to patients. Through this initiative, over 550 Sri Lankans are being given employment including 250 EMTs who were trained in India as per stringent standards expected of this care. In addition, 250 pilots and 50 Call Center Operators have been trained and equipped with knowhow and competencies in managing and administering emergency care. This extent of knowledge transfer, which includes US paramedic certifications and a state of the art Command and Control Center located in Rajagiriya, is another first etched in the country’s medical annals.

At the flagging off ceremony, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who noted that he’s happy to be associated with such a noble initiative, said, “We are pleased to keep a promise made to the people during the General Election last year. This is a service that is much needed by the people and a timely one indeed.” Given the socially responsible facets embedded in this initiative, Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, who was directly responsible in ensuring the fruition of the free ambulance service to Sri Lanka, in mentioned that it is a great honour for the Government of India to be associated with this initiative.

Under the aegis of the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Project 1990, which takes as its title the toll free number for emergency management in Sri Lanka, will be rolled out to the entire country eventually. Accessible from any network 24x7x365 via the Command and Control Center, the service collates a multi-linked umbrella of stakeholders including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Telecom and the Director General of Police.

The Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Dr Rajitha Senaratne, who lauded the initiative, thanked the Indian Government for making this emergency response project an actuality. “It is in that first golden hour that care must be administered in emergency situations and given that these pre-hospital care ambulances are not only equipped with all the facilities to administer that pre-hospital care but also have highly trained personnel whose knowledge enables that care, is truly the difference between a life and death situation.”

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Harsha De Silva who is responsible for mooting this pre-hospital care ambulance service enthused that this dream that began as an almost impossible one with a vision to save hundreds of lives is now a reality, affirming an election pledge made by the Prime Minister. “While Sri Lanka’s healthcare is well ahead of the region and in most instances even the developed world, the only lacuna that existed was in gaining timely access to emergency ambulances with trained para-medical staff. This world class fully equipped ambulance service manned by certified medical technicians can now get to the emergency location in under 30 minutes, stabilize and transport the patient to the nearest appropriate state sector hospital.”

Chairman of GVK EMRI Dr G V K Reddy commenting on the knowledge transfer stated, “It is indeed a matter of great honor and fulfillment to be a part of this historic moment of commencement of Emergency Management Services in Sri Lanka. I am personally indebted to both the Honorable Prime Ministers of India and Sri Lanka for their trust placed in GVK EMRI in realizing this dream of implementing 1990 Emergency Services in Lanka.”

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/...tal-care-ambulance-service-with-indian-grant/

 

[Gibbs]

What was St.John's Ambulance service doing for all those decades ? Weren't they free ? And all those Ambulances in govt hospitals ?.. I dont think this is the first "Free" ambulance service, Para medics maybe but certainly not the first

 

[Godman]

What was St.John's Ambulance service doing for all those decades ? Weren't they free ? And all those Ambulances in govt hospitals ?.. I dont think this is the first "Free" ambulance service, Para medics maybe but certainly not the first

Its the first free "pre-hospital care ambulance service" so yeah not the first free amublence service its the first ambulence service in sri Lanka in this scale with Command and control centers etc

@ranjeet @Rajaraja Chola @Nilgiri @Srinivas

@nair @SrNair

 

[Srinivas]

Good to know this development !

Thanks for tagging me!

Its the first free "pre-hospital care ambulance service" so yeah not the first free amublence service its the first ambulence service in sri Lanka in this scale with Command and control centers etc

@ranjeet @Rajaraja Chola @Nilgiri @Srinivas

@nair @SrNair

 

[HeinzG]

Its the first free "pre-hospital care ambulance service" so yeah not the first free amublence service its the first ambulence service in sri Lanka in this scale with Command and control centers etc

@ranjeet @Rajaraja Chola @Nilgiri @Srinivas

@nair @SrNair

What is the purpose of this state of the art ambulance service? when in fact Sri Lankan hospitals are situated not far away from population centers and there aren't any record to justify specialized ambulance service where generally no one died because there were no rapid transportation of the patience to hospitals.

IMHO this would be a white elephant project and highly suspect able move from India where there are many millions of Indians that are lacking even basic medical care. I guess India needs these more than Sri Lanka.

 

[my2cents]

What is the purpose of this state of the art ambulance service? when in fact Sri Lankan hospitals are situated not far away from population centers and there aren't any record to justify specialized ambulance service where generally no one died because there were no rapid transportation of the patience to hospitals.

IMHO this would be a white elephant project and highly suspect able move from India where there are many millions of Indians that are lacking even basic medical care. I guess India needs these more than Sri Lanka.

If you guys think these are white elephants and you don't need them then please return them. We can make good use of them.

 

[HeinzG]

If you guys think these are white elephants and you don't need them then please return them. We can make good use of them.

Sri Lanka didn't ask for them. It was India that pushed for it's implementation. Tell Modi to relocate the service to India where they will be of much use.

 

[Godman]

If you guys think these are white elephants and you don't need them then please return them. We can make good use of them.

Well India already has this. I recomend you ignore these dumb and ignorant looserz The Pro-Rajapksa scoundrels attempted many lies such as Indian drivers being given jobs ,RAW agents coming in etc etc until every one of those lies were thrown into the dust bin.There were idiots in FB who after the Indians taking over the jobs lie was debunked said that the Paramedics who went to train GVK EMRI were going to return with Malaria!

The project was requested by Harsha De Silva though the PM when India offered a gift to commerate the visit of the Sri Lankan PM to India and vice versa. India also offered things like Universities but I agree that they chose the best thing.
Sri Lanka lacks a good emergency pre-hospital medical care service and this has resulted in many deaths. In fact the existing ambulence services are themselves are inadequate. The project is praised by many people including people that voted Rajapaksa many of them are disgusted by the low level behavior of Pro-Rajapksa politicians and the dumb slaves.
The reason why Harsha proposed is according to him this was the main reason for his proposal


The minister recalled a personal experience where a vehicle overturned and a lady was thrown out of the vehicle while he was travelling to Kuchchaveli in the East.

A lady specialist who was travelling with his friends immediately helped her and the patient was transported in a Toyota vehicle to Kantale hospital where a single ambulance was available but the procedure was long to get it released. It was decided to take the patient - with the lady doctor carefully holding the head of the patient to protect her spine - to Dambulla hospital, where an ambulance was readied.

But the lady doctor had said the patient would suffer further damage as it lacked the facilities to keep a patient who had suffered spinal injury safe. As a result the patient was transported to Colombo in the original vehicle and she underwent an 8 hour operation.
http://economynext.com/Emotional_Ha...s_Sri_Lanka_businesses_to_support-3-4709.html

My self has experinaced such events and even worse where the patient in emergency condition had to be transported by three wheelers while bleeding heavily and such incidents are EXTREMELY common in SL. A large number of patients die on the road, the real fact is both India and Pakistan has better ambuelnce services than SL.

This is only the beggining and as the Minister said they are hoping local buisnessmen would help the project hopefully they will gain more staff and infratsructure so it will expand to all of Sri Lanka. Many of my friends and relatives in the medical proffession also welcomed this project.

I thank Dr.Harsha De silva for the Idea as well as the Indian government for the training and assistance

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=835205196609460

 

[jetray]

IMHO this would be a white elephant project

Nonsense, services like this make life better.

and highly suspect able move from India where there are many millions of Indians that are lacking even basic medical care. I guess India needs these more than Sri Lanka.

True, it was stupid on Indias part to provide assistance. But the fact is even a aid provided by large country like US wont make any difference to India, but for small countries it makes a lot of difference.

Well India already has this. I recomend you ignore these dumb and ignorant looserz The Pro-Rajapksa scoundrels attempted many lies such as Indian drivers being given jobs ,RAW agents coming in etc etc until every one of those lies were thrown into the dust bin.There were idiots in FB who after the Indians taking over the jobs lie was debunked said that the Paramedics who went to train GVK EMRI were going to return with Malaria!

The project was requested by Harsha De Silva though the PM when India offered a gift to commerate the visit of the Sri Lankan PM to India and vice versa. India also offered things like Universities but I agree that they chose the best thing.
Sri Lanka lacks a good emergency pre-hospital medical care service and this has resulted in many deaths. In fact the existing ambulence services are themselves are inadequate. The project is praised by many people including people that voted Rajapaksa many of them are disgusted by the low level behavior of Pro-Rajapksa politicians and the dumb slaves.
The reason why Harsha proposed is according to him this was the main reason for his proposal


The minister recalled a personal experience where a vehicle overturned and a lady was thrown out of the vehicle while he was travelling to Kuchchaveli in the East.

A lady specialist who was travelling with his friends immediately helped her and the patient was transported in a Toyota vehicle to Kantale hospital where a single ambulance was available but the procedure was long to get it released. It was decided to take the patient - with the lady doctor carefully holding the head of the patient to protect her spine - to Dambulla hospital, where an ambulance was readied.

But the lady doctor had said the patient would suffer further damage as it lacked the facilities to keep a patient who had suffered spinal injury safe. As a result the patient was transported to Colombo in the original vehicle and she underwent an 8 hour operation.
http://economynext.com/Emotional_Ha...s_Sri_Lanka_businesses_to_support-3-4709.html

My self has experinaced such events and even worse where the patient in emergency condition had to be transported by three wheelers while bleeding heavily and such incidents are EXTREMELY common in SL. A large number of patients die on the road, the real fact is both India and Pakistan has better ambuelnce services than SL.

This is only the beggining and as the Minister said they are hoping local buisnessmen would help the project hopefully they will gain more staff and infratsructure so it will expand to all of Sri Lanka. Many of my friends and relatives in the medical proffession also welcomed this project.

I thank Dr.Harsha De silva for the Idea as well as the Indian government for the training and assistance

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=835205196609460

Exactly, some ppl out of hatred dont see the benefit. I agree with the fact that India has large ambulance service but for our population size, the service its not good enough.

Critical life saving services like this will never be enough. Its never the quantity but quality and finally boils to the question did we save life or not, rest of the concerns are immaterial on where they come,how..etc.

 

[my2cents]

Well India already has this. I recomend you ignore these dumb and ignorant looserz The Pro-Rajapksa scoundrels attempted many lies such as Indian drivers being given jobs ,RAW agents coming in etc etc until every one of those lies were thrown into the dust bin.There were idiots in FB who after the Indians taking over the jobs lie was debunked said that the Paramedics who went to train GVK EMRI were going to return with Malaria!

The project was requested by Harsha De Silva though the PM when India offered a gift to commerate the visit of the Sri Lankan PM to India and vice versa. India also offered things like Universities but I agree that they chose the best thing.
Sri Lanka lacks a good emergency pre-hospital medical care service and this has resulted in many deaths. In fact the existing ambulence services are themselves are inadequate. The project is praised by many people including people that voted Rajapaksa many of them are disgusted by the low level behavior of Pro-Rajapksa politicians and the dumb slaves.
The reason why Harsha proposed is according to him this was the main reason for his proposal


The minister recalled a personal experience where a vehicle overturned and a lady was thrown out of the vehicle while he was travelling to Kuchchaveli in the East.

A lady specialist who was travelling with his friends immediately helped her and the patient was transported in a Toyota vehicle to Kantale hospital where a single ambulance was available but the procedure was long to get it released. It was decided to take the patient - with the lady doctor carefully holding the head of the patient to protect her spine - to Dambulla hospital, where an ambulance was readied.

But the lady doctor had said the patient would suffer further damage as it lacked the facilities to keep a patient who had suffered spinal injury safe. As a result the patient was transported to Colombo in the original vehicle and she underwent an 8 hour operation.
http://economynext.com/Emotional_Ha...s_Sri_Lanka_businesses_to_support-3-4709.html

My self has experinaced such events and even worse where the patient in emergency condition had to be transported by three wheelers while bleeding heavily and such incidents are EXTREMELY common in SL. A large number of patients die on the road, the real fact is both India and Pakistan has better ambuelnce services than SL.

This is only the beggining and as the Minister said they are hoping local buisnessmen would help the project hopefully they will gain more staff and infratsructure so it will expand to all of Sri Lanka. Many of my friends and relatives in the medical proffession also welcomed this project.

I thank Dr.Harsha De silva for the Idea as well as the Indian government for the training and assistance

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=835205196609460

I just hope you guys keep cooperating with your big neighbour and we will see our bilateral trade and tourism grow exponentially . There is no need for animosity and we can put the past behind us.

 

[HeinzG]

I just hope you guys keep cooperating with your big neighbour and we will see our bilateral trade and tourism grow exponentially . There is no need for animosity and we can put the past behind us.

No cooperation is needed with India. India only thinks about it's interested. Fellow SAARAC neighbors will testify for that.

Nonsense, services like this make life better.

It does where it matters the most. Why not doing something in India?

True, it was stupid on Indias part to provide assistance. But the fact is even a aid provided by large country like US wont make any difference to India, but for small countries it makes a lot of difference.

Your points doesn't make any sense. If it was stupid then why did India did it? What is the need for India to provide aid for Sri Lanka?

The project was requested by Harsha De Silva though the PM when India offered a gift to commerate the visit of the Sri Lankan PM to India and vice versa. India also offered things like Universities but I agree that they chose the best thing.
Sri Lanka lacks a good emergency pre-hospital medical care service and this has resulted in many deaths. In fact the existing ambulence services are themselves are inadequate. The project is praised by many people including people that voted Rajapaksa many of them are disgusted by the low level behavior of Pro-Rajapksa politicians and the dumb slaves.
The reason why Harsha proposed is according to him this was the main reason for his proposal


The minister recalled a personal experience where a vehicle overturned and a lady was thrown out of the vehicle while he was travelling to Kuchchaveli in the East.

A lady specialist who was travelling with his friends immediately helped her and the patient was transported in a Toyota vehicle to Kantale hospital where a single ambulance was available but the procedure was long to get it released. It was decided to take the patient - with the lady doctor carefully holding the head of the patient to protect her spine - to Dambulla hospital, where an ambulance was readied.

But the lady doctor had said the patient would suffer further damage as it lacked the facilities to keep a patient who had suffered spinal injury safe. As a result the patient was transported to Colombo in the original vehicle and she underwent an 8 hour operation.
http://economynext.com/Emotional_Ha...s_Sri_Lanka_businesses_to_support-3-4709.html

My self has experinaced such events and even worse where the patient in emergency condition had to be transported by three wheelers while bleeding heavily and such incidents are EXTREMELY common in SL. A large number of patients die on the road, the real fact is both India and Pakistan has better ambuelnce services than SL.

This is only the beggining and as the Minister said they are hoping local buisnessmen would help the project hopefully they will gain more staff and infratsructure so it will expand to all of Sri Lanka. Many of my friends and relatives in the medical proffession also welcomed this project.

I thank Dr.Harsha De silva for the Idea as well as the Indian government for the training and assistance

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=835205196609460

If Sri Lanka needed a good emergency pre-hospital medical care service it should've provided through the local hospitals. Sri Lanka has a good medical system and there are also ambulances allocated to them. So why set up a separate unit for this medical care service. How can you justify it? Wouldn't it be better if they became a integral part of a local hospital rather than being a separate unit? AFAIK this unit act independent right? (That means without the oversight from the ministry of health)

If the existing ambulances were inadequate then the proper thing to do was to allocate these Indian ambulances to the existing system. That is why this service has raised some eye brows. Besides that this service was initially claimed to be a free one. But the recent reports has suggested they charge some amount for their service. That's not a huge issue but rather going back from a initial promise they made.

Anyhow if this service is needed then it is needed for the people who don't even have proper ambulances and good hospitals. That is for the people living in rural Northern, Eastern, Uva and Hambantota area. But the initial service has started in Southern province which is mostly developed area except for more rural Eastern and Central parts of it. It just simply kill it's intended purpose of helping the needy.

 

[Razia Sultana]

Request my fellow countrymen to not argue on this matter. It has been provided and accepted with good intent. Hope it serves the purpose of saving life.

 

[Nilgiri]

@HeinzG has a point. India is better off focusing on improving its own ridiculous healthcare provision overall before committing aid to a country that has much better life expectancy. It makes sense for India to help afghanistan etc...but Sri Lanka is like South India in healthcare, so they should not be a huge priority for Indian assistance when we have places like UP and Bihar where rural people have not seen one ambulance ever.

Although the amount here is not crazy big or anything so I think its ok for purposes of goodwill etc.

What does @Gibbs think?

 

[HeinzG]

@HeinzG has a point. India is better off focusing on improving its own ridiculous healthcare provision overall before committing aid to a country that has much better life expectancy. It makes sense for India to help afghanistan etc...but Sri Lanka is like South India in healthcare, so they should not be a huge priority for Indian assistance when we have places like UP and Bihar where rural people have not seen one ambulance ever.

Although the amount here is not crazy big or anything so I think its ok for purposes of goodwill etc.

What does @Gibbs think?

I would like to take this initiative as symbol of cooperation between the two countries. But, the events since the oust of Mahinda Rajapaksha from presidency in 2015 has compelled me to view Indian interventions in Sri Lanka with some skepticism. I can't justify that India offered this service with good intent.

 

[Nilgiri]

I would like to take this initiative as symbol of cooperation between the two countries. But, the events since the oust of Mahinda Rajapaksha from presidency in 2015 has compelled me to view Indian interventions in Sri Lanka with some skepticism. I can't justify that India offered this service with good intent.

Its under an 8 million dollar grant. There really is not much intent to talk about really.

If it was 8 billion, we got a genuine discussion on our hands about the agenda and intent.