Nov. 16: The GVK EMRI 108 Service is planning to introduce a boat ambulance to transport patients from North Guwahati to the city across the Brahmaputra.

It will be a pubic-private partnership (PPP) between the state government and the GVK EMRI 108 Service.

The entire expense of this service will be borne by the state government.

The vehicle will be procured from Cochin at an estimated cost of Rs 12 lakh. It will have two pilots, a trained paramedic and will be equipped with drugs and certain life-saving medical equipment.

“The pre-hospital care that is administered to a patient inside the ambulance that first picks him up in North Guwahati will be continued by our paramedic inside the boat ambulance and also inside the ambulance in which he will travel farther. However, because of space constraint, the boat ambulance will not have advance life-support equipment,” said a senior official of the ambulance service.

At present, patients facing any form of medical emergency are transported from North Guwahati via the road connecting Jalukbari with Amingaon. But the frequent traffic snarls on the Saraighat bridge that fall on this route delays the ambulances.

“People at times are stuck in traffic on the Saraighat bridge for more than 30 minutes. This delay may result in deterioration of the health of the patient in an ambulance if he fails to get medical care on time. A boat ambulance will definitely make things easier,” said Kamal Bora, a resident of North Guwahati.

“Our ambulances try to reach the spot within 10 to 20 minutes. But while carrying patients to and from North Guwahati, the ambulances frequently get stuck in the traffic over Saraighat bridge,” the official said.

“But if patients are transported across the Brahmaputra in a boat ambulance, valuable time can be saved. Our ambulance stationed at the North Guwahati public healthcare centre will first pick up the patient from a spot and then transferred to the boat ambulance. Once it reaches the river bank here, he will be transferred into the ambulance that would carry him to the nearest hospital,” the official added.

However, the specific spot on the riverbanks on both sides where the boat ambulance will be anchored has not been fixed.

While the GVK EMRI 108 Service operates 13 ambulances on road in the Kamrup (metro) district, it operates only one ambulance in North Guwahati.