K’taka: ‘108 ambulance service failed to reach 50% patients within time’

Bengaluru, Dec 10 : The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its latest report has highlighted Karnataka governments’ successive failure in running the emergency medical services (EMS) under the 108 ambulance services.
The CAG said that in 50 per cent of the trauma cases, ambulances nearly did not reach within the critical golden hour, between 2014-15 to 2018-19.
Besides, the CAG also observed that only in 72 per cent of the cases the ambulance services have reached in the stipulated 30 minutes duration.
The CAG further noted that studies have indicated that the 108 services in cases of cardiac ailments, respiratory and stroke cases, though the time frame stipulated was 10 minutes, in over 60 per cent of cases, it reached much later.
“The success of EMS is largely dependent on its responsiveness to emergencies and the adequacy of the infrastructure in place. Audit noticed that EMS fell short of achieving the desired objectives completely,” the CAG explained.
The report added that the project aimed to reach the patients/sites within 20 minutes on an average in urban areas and 30 minutes on an average in rural areas and it was noticed that this was achieved in only 72 per cent of the cases.