TN planning to extend neonatal ambulances to 67

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu government is planning to extend the specialty service of Neonatal ambulances in all the districts with a total neo-natal fleet size of 67 ambulances, according to state health minister V S Vijay.

Delivering the presidential address to mark the fourth year anniversary celebration of GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) 108 services, the minister said that 2,000 neonates have benefited with four neonatal ambulances which was launched for the first time on June 29, 2011.

He said recently new neonatal ambulances have been inducted in the districts of Dharmapuri, Cuddalore and Madurai and plans are on to have it extended to all the districts.

Interestingly, the initiative by the government to extend the ambulance services to all the districts comes in the wake of the state’s Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) dropping to 24 deaths per 1,000 live births in Tamil Nadu, against the national average of 47 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Project director of Tamil Nadu Health Services Project (TNHSP) Pankaj Kumar Bansal told Express that the neo natal mortality rate (NMR) in the state has been the lowest when compared to other states. He highlighted the success due to coordinated response by the neonatal ambulances, primary health centers and neonatal intensive care unit.

He also highlighted the effectiveness of neonatal intensive care unit which has state-of-the-art equipments and said the state is planning to add another 20 such units soon.

Bansal said that the quality of healthcare is so good that even many bigger hospitals are referring cases to Institutite of Child Health hospitals.

Earlier, the minister highlighted the effectiveness of 108 ambulances even in the hilly and tribal locations of the state. The minister said that the ambulance services received 2,250 cases per month from the tribal and remote areas.

Citing that there has been an increase in the inter facility transfers (shifting patients from health centers to tertiary hospitals) by 108 ambulances, the minister said that in 2012-13, IFT count increased from 10,171 in April 2012 to 17,960 in November 2012, an increase of 76 per cent.

He said with the additional launch of 170 ambulances by Chief minister J Jayalalithaa on September 11, 2012, the ambulance count crosses 600 mark covering 7.21 crore population in the entire state.

Health secretary State health secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan hailed the role played by 108 services and said the public private partnership model compliments each other. Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine director Dr R T Porkai Pandian also spoke on the occasion.