Delhi govt adds 50 new ambulances for CATS

New Delhi: A fleet of 50 new ambulances was on Friday added by Delhi government to its Centralised Accident and Trauma Service (CATS) to tackle the problem of shortage of emergency vehicles and ensure pre-hospital medical care to patients, including victims of accidents and sexual crimes.

With the induction of the new fleet, the total number of ambulances available with the CATS has gone up to 151. The new ambulances were flagged off by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Dikshit said all the ambulances are equipped with all emergency medical facilities. She said the ambulances can be called by making calls to helpline numbers 102 and 1099. All the ambulances have GPS devices and their operation will be monitored from a state-of-the-art control room which will function round-the-clock. "These ambulances will also provide transportation to the victims of sexual offense," Dikshit said. Health Minister A K Walia said a total of 129 new paramedics and 177 drivers have been appointed for the new fleet of ambulances. "Out of the total 151 ambulances under CATS, 21 are Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances, 10 are Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances and 121 are Patient Transporting ambulances," he said. Walia said government has decided to further increase the fleet by adding 90 BLS and 10 ALS ambulances in the next few months. He said CATS ambulances had transported 59,835 patients and accident victims during October, 2012 to March, 2013 which included 10,115 calls related to maternity emergency. CATS is a 100 per cent grant-in-aid society of Delhi government and it has been offering its services since 1991. PTI