Bhubaneswar:  In an effort to provide round the clock and free of cost emergency health service to the people, Odisha government today signed an MoU with Ziquitza Health Care Limited for introduction of ambulance service.

"This will facilitate an integrated and comprehensive emergency health care management in the state providing high-end ambulance trasnportation system from the doorstep of the patients to appropriate care in a hospital," said health minister Prasanna Acharya.

Stating that the patients could avail an ambulance within 20 minutes of a telephone call in urban area and within 35 minutes in rural pockets, Acharya said the service would be provided in 15 districts on first phase and remaining 15 district in the last phase. To start with, the service would be avaialble in Khurda and Koraput districts, the minister said.

The 15 districts to be covered under the first phase are: Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Ganjam, Rayagada and Koraput.

As per the agreement, there will be one ambulance per one lakhs population at an average. The fleet of ambulance will comprise of both Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advance Life Support (ALS) ambulances.

While 80 per cent of the 420 ambulances would be of BLS type, remaining 20 per cent could be ALS. " In the first phase, 280 ambulances will be operationalized in the 15 identified districts," said health secretary P K Mohapatra.

However, response time can be made more flexible depending upon the geographical conditions especially in KBK regions, for which the time may vary from 45-60 minutes, Acharya said replying a question.