Shimla: In the middle of Coronavirus pandemic, Emergency Ambulance Service provider GKV EMRI will stop its services from tomorrow citing mounting losses and pending payment with the state Government.
GKV EMRI management has already served termination notice to its employees and as per notice their services will terminate on 15 July. At present 1,135 employees, including 588 drivers, 46 support staffers, 29 call centre executives, 464 emergency medical technicians and eight response officers were rendering their services in Emergency Ambulance Service of 108 and 102.
The state government had selected the GVK EMRI to provide emergency ambulance services and it was responsible for design, procurement, operation and maintenance of the emergency response services, including procurement of ambulances, set up of IT Infrastructure, operations and maintenance. However, lack of timely releasing of funds have plagued the service of EMRI and now it’s on the verge closure.
The 108 national ambulance service was started in 2010, while 102 ambulance service, specially launched for pregnant women, initiated its operations in 2014. With a fleet of 200 ambulances GVK EMRI was providing uninterrupted services to the people of the state and now, when cases of Coronavirus are rising at the alarming rates, disruption of Emergency Ambulance Service will impact the health services hard in the state.
