The Gujarat government’s air ambulance project finally took off on Monday. Purnesh Modi, the Union Aviation Minister, launched the service and announced the start of the project from the GujSAIL office at the Ahmedabad airport.
The project will be run jointly by the health department and GVK-EMRI, which operates 108 ambulance services in the state.
The air ambulance service will be provided by the 108 service, and patients will not be charged for transportation from the hospital to the airport. Caregivers, on the other hand, will be charged between Rs 55,000 and Rs 65,000 per hour for their services, in addition to any other airport fees. GujSAIL will be the one to receive payment.
Officials of GVK-EMRI said, “The process to book the air ambulance will be the same as booking a normal road ambulance where those seeking the service will have to call the 108 helpline and give information about the patient, medical history and which hospital they are admitted to and where they would like to be transported.”
Currently, the service is only available for intra-state transfers of patients within Gujarat, but a request to transport a patient outside of the state will be considered if medical advice is provided.
According to a GujSAIL officer, the air ambulance will have one doctor and two paramedical staff. The plane has a ventilator, a defibrillator, and an ECG monitor, among other things.