Sakal Relief Fund and Sarhad Pune in association with H N Wanchoo Trust Monday started free ambulance service in Kashmir Valley.
The function to launch the service was held at SKICC here and was attended by doctors, academicians, social activists and eminent citizens in addition to children from different schools.
Governor N N Vohra launched the service. Choudhary Lal Singh, Minister for Health & Medical Education, was also present on the occasion. These ambulances have been donated by “Sarhad” a Pune based NGO and an educational organization, “Sakal Media Group” of Maharashtra. The Ambulance Service will be run by the “H.N Wanchoo Trust” in association with the State Health Department.
Speaking on the occasion, the Governor observed that a well coordinated approach is required to fill the gaps in our medical emergency services. He said that our ambulance facilities suffer on the account of uncertain operational reliability, inadequate resuscitation equipments and non availability of the optimum number of adequately trained and experienced medical and para medical staff to man the ambulances. The Governor advised the preparation of a standing drill, which is relevant for application from the village to the city level, and made known to all the government medical centres and public at large. He said that total coordination is imperative for enabling a sick person to be safely transported to the nearest medical care facility.
The Governor also suggested to the Health Minister to dovetail the region wise Ambulance Services Plan with the requirement of providing immediate help to accident cases on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway by entering into the required collaborative arrangements with the National Highway Authority of India, so that any unfortunate happening could be dealt with promptly. He also urged the Health Minister to take into account all the Ambulances available with the Indian Red Cross Society (J&K) so that these assets are optimally utilized.
The Governor complimented Sarhad Pune, Sakal Media Group and H.N Wanchoo Trust for the noble initiative taken by them to promote the humanitarian cause.
Ch. Lal Singh, on the occasion, reiterated the commitment of his Department in providing the best health care facilities to the people of the State.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
“Today is a great day and I am sure my grandfather will be happy there in heaven and watching us dedicate this project to people of Kashmir. He always worked for the upliftment of downtrodden and was closely associated in rebuilding lives of sweepers and their families. He was an active Trade unionist, Human rights activist, Social worker and a great human” Dr. Amit Wanchoo Chairman H. N Wanchoo Trust spoke in an emotional tone.
Shriram Pawar while interacting with media said, “Of all the Projects Sakal has done we are delighted to do such initiative as we always believe in helping the needy people. Nowadays we have been witnessing too many tragic accidents, many of which fail to reach for any assistance and eventually end up with the loss of such precious lives. We are serving humanity for 84 years and aim to do more work in J&K state. We will be collaborating in some more charity projects in future.”
This ambulance service will start in three phases and in the first phase it will be night service only in Srinagar. The trial runs will be in August and final commencement of the project will be from mid September. In addition to ambulance service, it will also train students of different schools and colleges in CPR training. In starting phase, One Ambulance will be modified further to work as Portable Investigative Ambulance covering ECG, USG and other set ups. The details regarding usage of this service will be publicised by September for general public.
Sanjay Nahar shared his views with people and said, “It requires one’s will power to materialise and implement such challenging projects. Hopefully this will be of great help and we encourage people to use this service. We will surely in future collaborate along with Sakal and Dr Amit Wanchoo for some more projects in the state. Maharashtra and J&K has a special bonding and we will always be there with the people of this state in happy and sad times. ”
The ambulances were finally unveiled and demonstration was given to guests and students.
Among those present were, Dr. Farooq Ahmad Lone, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar; Dr. Sameer Matoo, Director Health Services, Kashmir; doctors, and large number of prominent citizens.