Maharashtra gets COVID-ready again with World-class emergency response services & MEMS 108 Toll-Free Ambulance services

2024-04-25 07:14:19 Health and Fitness

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Pune, 20 January 2022: BVG India Ltd. a key player that manages the Maharashtra?s Emergency Medical Services (MEMS), has announced that it is fully geared up for the pandemic and spike in COVID-cases by offering world-class emergency response services and MEMS 108 Toll-Free ambulance services. Throughout the pandemic, BVG?s MEMS and 108 Toll-Free ambulance services have benefited lakhs of people in Maharashtra and has served over 67.70 lakh patients (as of December 2021) since the beginning of operations from 2014.

BVG ambulance service in association with the Maharashtra Government is India?s first project where a qualified doctor attends to the patient in an ambulance, as compared to just a paramedic in non-BVG ambulances across India. The importance of qualified trained doctors taking care of patients in Ambulance can be gauged by the fact that BVG MEMS has served over 5.90 lakh Covid-19 patients since the beginning of the pandemic and more than 37,600 successful deliveries have been assisted by doctors of BVG MEMS in ambulances.

Mr. Rajesh Tope, Hon. Cabinet Health Minister, Maharashtra, acknowledged the BVG MEMS team for successfully serving emergency patients health system preparedness and response to COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when most people were scared and confined to homes, 108 ambulances were continuously running on the roads to serve patients in need, he said in a letter.

?It was commendable to note that even though over 310 emergency professionals including doctors and pilots were working on the ambulances were affected by COVID-19, post-recovery, this team joined the system back to serve patients. Looking at the spirit of this team, it depicts the sign of utmost humanity that cares for the community," said Mr. Tope, adding that the response from BVG MEMS team was praiseworthy and prompt.

BVG India has undertaken ambitious state-of-the-art world-class MEMS initiative of Maharashtra operated 24/7 from Aundh Chest Hospital in Pune. Toll-free 108 is accessible from all mobiles and landline numbers across the State. Over 4,200 EMS professionals have been employed in this MEMS Service system and have received a great opportunity to serve people on grounds of humanity. With MEMS, there is tremendous rise in providing healthcare facility in rural, hilly and tribal areas of Maharashtra.

Mr. Hanmantrao Ramdas Gaikwad, Chairman & Managing Director (CMD), BVG India Ltd., said, ?BVG India strategy of ensuring trained doctors in ambulance for the first time in India assisted us in serving patients better and in creating new excellence benchmarks in terms of Training & Knowledge Management. Along with saving valuable lives, we assisted Maharashtra get the distinction of being the first state in India to have EMS treatment protocol for emergency care; and creating the Manual of Maharashtra EMS.?

After establishing a unitary National Health Mission (NHM) the market for emergency services has grown at a CAGR of 25.8% between Fiscal 2013-21; catapulting the market size to Rs. 32.8 billion in Fiscal 2021.

BVG has built a highly successful and a unique operating model for Maharashtra EMS. World Class Equipment (Defibrillator & transport ventilator - Germany, medical grade oxygen delivery system-Spain); the first ambulance in the country to have medical-grade oxygen delivery system; and Homologated ambulance certified by ARAI.

In terms of ERC, BVG MEMS has a state-of-the-art control room; seamless integration with other departments; backup of 5 ambulances for each ambulance; dynamic display on map for incident location identification; and MEMS dashboard - real-time data access to government officers.

BVG India is one of the largest integrated facilities management services player in India with over 54,000 employees (as of June 2021) having served 582 clients across 35+ sectors in 130+ cities in FY21. BVG offers services to a diverse base of clients operating across sectors including industrial and consumer sector, transport and transit infrastructure sector, hospitals and healthcare sector, and to government establishments. BVG is among the few companies to also service religious institutions in India (Source: F&S Report). As part of its integrated services business, BVG provided railway station management services in 2019. In addition to integrated services and facility management services, BVG provides emergency response services for medical emergencies and police emergencies, and waste management services. BVG is the first company in India to be awarded contracts for providing emergency police response services (Source: F&S Report). In addition to these services, BVG executes facility management projects, mainly comprising gardening and landscaping services. Under its integrated services business, BVG serviced key clients in the industrial and consumer sector. In the transport and transit infrastructure sector BVG?s clients include Metro Rail Limited, highway and transport authorities and have serviced 16 different airports in different metro cities while in the hospitals and healthcare sector its clients include government hospitals across various cities.

BVG is the first company in India to be awarded contract for providing emergency police response services, which is a unique project in the country. BVG is a key player offering services in emergency response service market. The company operates in Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir with a fleet of over 1,400 ambulances and 30 bike ambulances as on June 30, 2021. BVG introduced the first ambulance equipped with defibrillators, blood pressure monitoring equipment, pulse oximetry and medical grade oxygen delivery systems and also was first in India to provide doctors with ambulances. The company has handled more than 33.15 million (3.32 crore) calls and served nearly 7.56 million (75.6 lakh) patient emergencies till 30th June 2021. BVG has helped in over 37,000 child births in ambulances between February 2014 and June 2021. BVG?s homologated ambulances are certified by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). In Maharashtra, BVG provides ambulances with world class equipment and it is the only state in the country which has dedicated doctors for each ambulance. The company offers command centre services through its in-house IT infrastructure. BVG is also the only company in India to offer value-added services as part of their emergency medical response services, which include staffing medical professionals in their ambulances and provides basic periodic health screening facilities to the tribal communities in Maharashtra.

In Maharashtra, areas covered by BVG MEMS includes Ahmednagar, Akola, Amravati, Aurangabad, Beed, Bhandara, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Dhule, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Hingoli, Jalgaon, Jalna, Kolhapur, Latur, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nanded, Nandurbar, Nashik, Osmanabad, Palghar, Parbhani, Pune, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Satara, Sindhudurg, Solapur, Thane, Wardha, Washim and Yavatmal among others.

30 Bike Emergency Medical First Response vehicles with well-trained EMS personnel are deployed in areas of Mumbai, and rural part of Palghar, Gadchiroli, Amravati and Solapur. After receiving call at 108 control room, nearest appropriate Bike Emergency Medical First Responder & ambulance is dispatched. Bike Emergency Medical First Responder has four kits -Trauma kit, Medical kit & Airway management kit and Delivery kit. Medical kit contains all emergency medicines like Adrenaline, atropine, frusemide, Inhalers, etc., to take care of all medical emergencies like stroke, heart attack, asthma, etc. Trauma Kit contains all necessary equipment?s like air splints to stabilize fractures, different bandages, anti-septic and analgesic sprays etc. Airway Kit contains AMBU Bags to give artificial ventilation to adult, Pediatrics and neonatal patients, Oxygen Cylinder, Airways, Suction machine that takes care of Respiratory emergencies and Unconscious patients. Delivery Kit contains all equipment?s like Gloves, Gowns, umbilical cord cutting scissors, cord clamps, etc., with which emergency delivery can be conducted at home.