Karamat Ali
IN order to provide more effective emergency services and to enhance the emergency response in congested areas of the major cities of Punjab, the Government of Punjab launched the Motorbike Ambulance Service, (MAS) from the provincial capital Lahore in 2017. This Motorbike Ambulance Service was started from Lahore as a test run with 300 motorbike ambulances to improve the healthcare facilities in the country under the flagship of Punjab Emergency Service which is commonly known as Rescue 1122.
The aim to start this service was to provide effective and timely emergency services in congested areas of the city, particularly to respond the emergencies in narrow streets, small roads or poorly accessed localities as well as to deal such with emergencies at peak hours of the busiest roads of the city where a four-wheeler ambulance can’t access easily.
Later, the motorbike ambulance project has been gradually extended to all the remaining eight divisions of Punjab: Rawalpindi, Multan, Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, DG Khan and Sargodha with 600 motorbike ambulances and emergency medical technicians after the successful experience in the city of Lahore.
The idea of the premier model of Motorbike Ambulance Service has been derived from the UK, Turkey and Japan models. The task of timely execution of Motorbike Ambulance Service was consigned to the meritorious DG Rescue Punjab Dr Rizwan Naseer for implementation of this project. In this regard, budget worth of Rs 842 million was allocated to launch this unique service in all the nine divisional headquarters of Punjab. The Motorbike Ambulance Service, a brainchild of the Government of the Punjab, has achieved a remarkable success by saving 65 percent expenditure of absolute cost of the project.
All these motorbike ambulances were locally designed as pattern of ambulance owing to the international standards under the supervision of British and Turkish health & emergency experts. These motorcycle ambulances equipped with all necessary medical gadgets including Trauma/airways kits, pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitor, stethoscope, glucometer, splints, cervical collar, portable oxygen cylinder has been provided to ensure effective service delivery and improved emergency response in congested areas especially during the peak hours.
The Motorbike Ambulance Service project has been replicated in all nine divisional headquarters in 55 percent of total budget which is self-explanatory of its transparency and merit. As the project was launched keeping in view the growing traffic problems and congestion on the roads. The MAS has proved its success through performance and rapidly responded to access the inaccessible areas of the cities in all kinds of emergencies. Keeping in view, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has given approval for extension of Motorbike Ambulance Service in remaining 27 districts of Punjab.
Moreover, the data revealed that out of all emergencies which were dealt with in all nine division of Punjab about 65 percent emergencies were responded by the Motorbike Ambulance Service saving a huge amount of expenditure in the form of POL. The MAS has notably reduced the burden of ambulances while provided first aid at the incident site by professionally trained MAS staff, therefore no ambulance or shifting were required to hospitals, thus leading to significant cost saving and burden of hospitals.
This Service has so far efficiently responded to all kinds of emergency in all nine divisions with a record response time of 4 minutes in congested areas and narrow streets.
Lately, the dream based on Turkish Model has also come true as Motorbike Ambulance Service has managed 600,000 emergencies while maintaining an average record response time of four minutes in the last three years in all nine divisions of the Punjab since 2017. Besides that MAS has also responded other emergencies which include road traffic crashes, medical, fall or slipping, occupational, electric shock, burn, delivery and animal rescue, cases of drowning, crime, fire cases, incidents of building collapse and other miscellaneous emergencies.
On this historic eve, the Founder Director General of Punjab Emergency Service, Dr Rizwan Naseer, has paid rich tributes and shared his warmest greetings to the officers, official and dedicated staff of Motorbike Ambulance Service on successful completion of its three years.
