Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 31: High Court directed the Chief Secretaries (CSs) and Director Generals of Police (DGPs) of both Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh to develop a mechanism for hassle free movement of ambulances in both UTs.
The division bench of Chief Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Puneet Gupta while hearing a PIL filed by a trust-White Globe seeking formulation of a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the purposes of hassle free movement of patient care ambulances while transporting the patients to and fro hospitals, directed the CS and DGPs of both the UTs to develop a mechanism in consultation with the Health Department for hassle free movement of ambulances.
The court directed to develop the mechanism keeping in view the order of the SSP Traffic City Srinagar. The SSP in the said order has emphasized on the SoP for free passage to ambulances in order to ensure free movement of ambulances in the city. The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir as nodal officer appointed by the court on the basis of inputs received from various departments filed a comprehensive affidavit submitting therein that on the report of the Mission Director National Health Mission Services has undertaken an initiative of J&K emergency Medical Services.
The Divisional Commissioner has submitted the details of services provided by the J&K emergency services and as per the report of DHSK has provided services of 71 Advanced Life Support (ALS) Ambulances and the fleet of emergency medical services comprising of 64 of ALS and 31 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances are fully equipped with the Life Equipment and Drugs as per the National Ambulance Code.
It is added that the services of these advanced ambulances can be availed by the general public through 108 Toll Free number and the said fleet of ambulances is GPS enabled. “The Divisional Distribution of the fleet is designed to reach the places of emergency within 20 minutes for Urban areas and 30 minutes for rural areas”, reads the affidavit.
Court has been further appraised by the Divisional Commissioner that the old ambulances which have exhausted their useful life are removed from the Active Ambulance Flee and are put to auction as well. “….in order to ensure hassle free movement of ambulances, the information of movement of emergency cases and inter district referral cases is shared with the Traffic Department. The Srinagar Traffic Police Office has also established a dedicated (24×7) Control Room wherein citizens can get real time assistance with regard to traffic”, Div Com says in his affidavit.
After going through the statements made in the affidavit by the Divisional Commissioner, the DB said that most of the departments have already taken note of the grievances put forth before this court in the present PIL and have taken appropriate actions to redress the same.
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