EMRI to Expand Emergency Care Services Throughout India

With its emergency health care services available across most of Andhra Pradesh, the Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), an initiative of Satyam Foundation, plans to cover the entire state by the month-end and then expand it throughout the country in the next two years.

EMRI, which presently has 500 state-of-the-art ambulances in Andhra Pradesh, is serving a population of 65 million in 19 districts. It aims to cover the remaining four districts by the end of this month.

EMRI has made 108 the toll free number one would dial for timely help in case of an accident, a house hold name since its launch in 2005.

Its state-of-the-art call centre handles more than 15,000 calls each day. All ambulances and pre-hospital care is provided free of charge and a mix of private and government funding supports the programme.

The non-profit organization has so far responded to roughly 250,000 emergencies and saved more than 10,000 lives. "On an average we are able to save 50 lives per day," EMRI Chief Executive Officer Venkat Changavalli told newsmen Wednesday. He was speaking on the occasion of launch of the two-year post graduate programme in emergency care in partnership with Stanford School of Medicine, USA.

For extending its services throughout the country, EMRI has realised the need for large number of Emergency Management Technicians (EMTs) and has tied up with Stanford School of Medicine to train paramedics for providing critical pre-hospital care.

The paramedics will be trained to provide critical care in the 'golden hour' or the first hour after a serious accident/illness till the patient is rushed to the hospital.

Stanford physicians will develop an educational curriculum and train 150 paramedics and 39 advanced clinical educators over a two-year period in India. The four-semester programme, which begins on July 16 in Hyderabad, will be open for graduates in life sciences, nursing and physiotherapy.

Mahadevan, Department of Emergency Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, said the MoU may be extended beyond two years.

Changavalli said the programme would go a long way in meeting the need for trained EMTs. EMRI in Andhra Pradesh has only 750 EMTs with two month training. It would require 25,000 EMTs to expand its services throughout the country, he said.

The MoU between Stanford University, Andhra Pradesh government and EMRI was signed last month at California in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and B. Ramalinga Raju, founder chairman, Satyam Computer Services Limited and chairman, EMRI.

Source-IANS
SRM/C