Hyderabad|India|May'2009: While appreciating the 108 emergency services, the Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has asked the EMRI Managers to make it absolutely transparent like CMRF and Aarogyasri. He wanted a new website to be created and the 108 service activities to be uploaded into it. The website should be updated everyday as the Aarogyasri Scheme. The Chief Minister said while there is a lot of appreciation about the 108 services in the State and he is very happy about it, there should be total clarity and transparency in the running of the scheme. He held a review meeting on the working of 108 services with Health and EMRI officials at Camp Office.

The Chief Minister wanted every trip of the 108 should be uploaded in the website and he would write letters to every beneficiary and seek their feedback on the services. He said Information Technology should be made use of to ensure transparency in such schemes. He said they should be sustained and continued and made to work in a more excellent way.

The Chief Minister was informed that there are 802 ambulances and 752 are operational throughout the State. The total emergencies attended since the inception of the scheme in August 2009 is 27,51,620 and during 2009 April it was 1,69,870, while total lives saved is 48,268 and 2,063 respectively. Average calls received per day is 70,300 and average scene to hospital time is 24 minute 15 seconds. He was informed average population per ambulance is 1.06 lakhs.

As the MoU with EMRI has expired on 31-3-2009, it will be extended with new Private participation. GVK Group has agreed to participate in the EMRI management and they would also bear the 5% cost of the scheme besides the operational costs. 95% of the scheme is borne by the State Government which will continue. There will also be a Government Director on the EMRI Board.

The Chief Minister was informed that EMRI has tie ups with 3331 private hospitals in Andhra Pradesh, apart from the government hospitals that can handle emergencies. These hospitals provide free stabilization services for the first 24 hours to the patient.

The gratitude and praise of the family members of the accident victims for the timely arrival of this angel of mercy when heard in first person is most convincing and moving. And there are thousands of families in which the lives of loved ones have been saved, who would be willing to shower EMRI with praise and call for the strengthening of this system whatever it takes to do so.

The training infrastructure at EMRI Hyderabad is impressive. There are classrooms training, hostels for the trainees, training equipment, and training protocols, and processes in place for testing and certifying skills. The choice of hospital to be taken to, lies only with the patient. In case the patient is unconscious or not able to exercise choice, then the choice is assumed to be the nearest public hospital.

There is justifiable pride in the professionalism and excellence in the design and operational management of the programme. It would be difficult to reinvent all this. Though it is not impossible to do so, the effort of bringing together a professional team with the sort of liberal funding and blank cheques that EMRI has been allowed and which is invaluable or such experimentation would seldom be available again in the government system.

EMRI is undoubtedly a historic landmark in the provision of health care in Andhra Pradesh and the Chief Minister wanted the scheme to expand and run more efficiently and with total transparency.

Finance Minister K Rosaiah, Chief Secretary P Ramakantha Reddy, Principal Secretary, Health, J Satyanarayana, Vice Chairman, Aarogyasri Healthcare Trust, P K Agarwal, CEO, 108 Services, Venkat Changavalli and other officials attended the meeting.