KARACHI: Sindh Integrated Emergency & Health Services (SIEHS-1122) is providing services in the 21 districts of Sindh with a 260-ambulance fleet; while the minimum requirement is 1,000 ambulances for the entire Sindh to further improve the free emergency ambulance service.
Talking to media on Wednesday, Abid Naveed Executive Director SIEHS said that SIEHS-1122 is providing 100 percent free-of-cost, around-the-clock ambulance service on international standards, with quality pre-hospital emergency care across 21 districts of Sindh using its 260 ambulances, which are fully equipped with the latest medical equipment and life-saving drugs, staffed with trained paramedics.
He said that as per international standards, one ambulance is required for 50,000 people and some 1500 ambulances are required to fulfil the public requirements. If the fleet even rose to 1000 ambulances will be sufficient for entire Sindh, he added.
He said that Sindh government is providing finances worth some Rs 3 billion to run this state of the art ambulance service. “We have basic life support ambulances, advanced life-support ambulances (with AED machines and Cardiac monitors), and advanced Cardiac Life Support ambulances (with ECG Machines),” Abid said.
He shared that SIEHS is a section 42 not-for-profit company formed in October 2018 in collaboration with the Government of Sindh, aimed to strengthen the primary healthcare structure in Sindh through a public-private arrangement. “Since then, we are ensuring delivery of timely, effective, patient-focused ambulance and holistic healthcare services, free of cost for the people of Sindh across all social spectrums,” he added.
The districts covered include Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Hyderabad, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Sukkur, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Kandhkot, Jacobabad, Mirpurkhas, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Khairpur, Naushero Feroz, Jamshoro, Mitiari, and Kashmore.
Executive Director SIEHS-1122 added that since inception in October 2018, it has carried out 56,514 flood interventions and catered to 789,793 incidents while their staffs have performed a total of 16,517 CPRs.
It has also monitored and tracked 257,715 Covid-19 cases since its formation and has dealt with 64,429 cases during the same period.
He said that the Command and Control (C&C) department of SIEHS-1122 is the advanced ACE-certified call centre that is powered with real-time GIS tracking and a wireless communication network. “It functions on international standards of Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) and we have received more than 4.13 million calls in the said period,” the Executive Director shared.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023