Patna, Dec. 28: State Health Society Bihar will provide ambulances to primary health centres (PHCs) in all blocks from January.

The ambulances, which would be specially designed to cater to the needs of pregnant women, would be called Janani Express.

Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey told The Telegraph that most of these ambulances, which have been bought from Tata Motors, have already arrived. “We will have nearly 550 such ambulances in the state. It will strengthen our maternal healthcare services,” he said.

He added that the ambulances, with trained employees and life-saving equipment, would pick up pregnant women to transport them to the PHCs, sub-divisional or district-level hospitals for delivery. The ambulances would also drop the women back home free of cost as post-partum care.

“These women can come to the hospital again with their newborns for a month after delivery for check-up in the ambulances. They just have to call up a toll-free number, 108. The number would be operated from a centralised call centre. We hope the facility would reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in the state. The figures have been declining for the past few years because of our efforts,” Choubey said.

Around Rs 40 crore is being spent to purchase the ambulances. Officials in the health department said the ambulance facilities at PHCs were earlier outsourced. However, it did not work effectively and hence the department thought of buying its own ambulances.

“We have ambulances at PHCs for emergency transport. But these services are outsourced and leave much to desire. The state government therefore decided to purchase about 550 ambulances of its own. This would strengthen the healthcare facility in the state, especially in rural areas,” a senior health department official said.

According to the data available with the health department, the average population served by a PHC is 45,287 and the average rural area covered by a PHC is 56.28sqkm. The average number of villages falling in a PHC is 27.

“In many cases, 40 per cent of the population covered by a PHC reside at a distance of more than 10km from their centres. One ambulance is not sufficient for their needs. Hospitals must have ambulances to serve the needy,” the official added.

Nurse recruitment

Ashwini Kumar Choubey today said 34,097 nurses and 10,000 Swasthya Mitras would be recruited across Bihar in 2012. He added that mobile nursing skill labs in eight districts would be started for 143 PHCs-Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Choubey said the infant mortality rate from 2005 to 2010 had reduced to 48 from 61. That of India it had declined to 47 from 58.