Chennai 108 Ambulance Service has specialized Neo-Natal Care ones now...

The 108 Free Ambulance Service has been one of the farsighted initiatives for which many poor Indians will be forever thankful to Ramalinga Raju, regardless of his corruption charges. It has been the one social intervention that has resulted in literally saving lives by attending to accident / ailment victims in the 'golden hour' when safe and knowledgeable transportation is critical. 

Chennai now has 2 specialized 108 vehicles (2 more to be added shortly)  that are meant to transport newborn infants in cases of emergency with all facilities to the nearest government hospital free of cost. This adds a definite advantage to the neo-natal care in the city. The staff who man the neo-natal ambulance are trained in handling such cases for emergency and in these ambulances (if what I heard is correct), two people are employed instead of the regular one to ensure that the new born is attended to without any difficulty. People can call the regular 108 service number itself for these services as well. These two ambulances are independent of the 19 existing 108 ambulances that are operated in the city already. 

Another service that utilizes the 108 back office is the 155377 help line that has a series of mortuary vans which are again run free of cost from any government hospital to ANY PART OF THE STATE.  There are 12 such vehicles being operated in the city currently. 

I happened to be in an interaction with the 108 crew members recently and it was wonderful to listen to them talk about their work with pride and satisfaction. One impressive part was uniform assertion that they never demand any money from those who use these services (including the mortuary vans, which is a huge money spinner in times of grief for families). 

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