Surendra Soren
Ranchi
In a major push to strengthen emergency healthcare services across the state, the Jharkhand Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare Department has decided to procure 720 new ambulances. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Additional Chief Secretary Ajay Kumar Singh on Friday.
The Additional Chief Secretary directed officials to complete the tender process within one month to ensure the timely rollout of the new fleet.
According to the decisions taken at the meeting, the procurement process for the 30 Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances approved earlier will continue. In addition, the department will purchase 20 more ALS ambulances, 270 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances, and 400 Patient Transport Vehicles (PTVs), taking the total number of new ambulances to 720.
Officials said the move was necessitated by the deteriorating condition of many ambulances purchased in previous years. Several vehicles have become unserviceable, affecting emergency medical transportation, particularly in rural areas where Community Health Centres (CHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) often struggle to refer patients to higher medical facilities.
To address this gap, the government has decided to deploy 400 Patient Transport Vehicles at CHCs and PHCs across the state to ensure timely transportation of patients to referral hospitals.
The meeting also decided that PTVs will be operated through an outsourced mechanism under the supervision of Medical Officers-in-Charge of the respective CHCs and PHCs. The National Health Mission (NHM) will provide ₹50,000 per vehicle per month for their operation.
The ALS ambulances will be stationed at all district hospitals and medical college hospitals and will be managed by the respective hospital administrations. The BLS ambulances will be operated through a selected service provider.
The department further fixed the operational lifespan of the ambulances. ALS and BLS ambulances will remain in service for 6.5 years or 150,000 kilometres, whichever is earlier, while Patient Transport Vehicles will have a service life of five years or 100,000 kilometres.
Directing officials to maintain high quality standards, Additional Chief Secretary Ajay Kumar Singh instructed that all ALS ambulances should be equipped with the prescribed life-saving equipment and conform to national emergency medical service standards.
The meeting was attended by Special Secretary Dr. Neha Arora, NHM Mission Director Shashi Prakash Jha, Joint Secretary Lalit Mohan Shukla, Deputy Secretary Dhruv Prasad, and other senior departmental officials.