When eight months pregnant Sukmi’s water broke she was in
Ongnarpal, a village deep in the jungle of Chhattisgarh where four
wheelers cannot reach and the hospital was miles away. However,
help arrived in the form of a motorcycle ambulance and Sukmi made
it to the hospital “just in time” and delivered a beautiful baby
girl.
The motorcycle-ambulance is a new concept in India that is
saving lives in remote regions where people had been dying because
they could not make it to the hospital on time.
Sukmi and her baby would not have survived had it not been for
the motorcycle -ambulance that was able to ferry her from her
remote village and take her to the civil hospital in Narayanpur
district.
Her case is not exceptional. The motorcycle-ambulance has saved
the lives of over 200 pregnant women and helped see a drop in
maternal and infant mortality rate in the Maoist-hit Narayanpur
district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh.
The ambulance, which had seen success in African countries, is a
modified four-stoke motorcycle fitted with a side-carriage
customised for the comfort of the patient.
Given the maze-type forest terrain, which can perplex any
outsider, these two wheelers are driven by local riders only, who
are trained to provide basic necessary first aid.
Health specialist at UNICEF, Ajay Trakroo says the
motorcycle-ambulance project was initiated last year and supported
by the UNICEF in collaboration with an NGO, Saathi Samaj Sevi
Sanstha, and the Health Department of the state government.
“Pregnant women are our main focus in the area as mortality rate
is high in this conflict bound region of Chhattisgarh. With this
experiment we are trying to provide necessary health care to the
pregnant women of this Maoist-affected tribal and hard-to- reach
forest area,” Trakroo told IANS.
He said the motorcycle ambulance’s USP is that it can be
operated in hard to reach areas. It is a referral ambulance, that
means it only ferries the patient to the hospital.
As of now there is only one motorcycle-ambulance in the entire
state which serves the pregnant women and other serious patients in
whole of Bastar division.
On expansion of the project, Trakroo said that ten more
motorcycle ambulances will be deployed soon.
“Though 108 ambulance services operate in Narayanpur, these
cannot reach deep into the forest or hilly terrain where many
villages are situated. This is where the motorcycle ambulance plays
a vital role. We will bring 10 more motorcycle ambulances in a few
months,” Trakroo said.
The National Institute of Technology (NIT), Raipur is working to
improve the design of the motorcycle ambulance to enhance
efficiency.
“We are focusing on increasing the power of the motorcycle and
the stability of the ambulance with help of NIT,” Trakroo added.
The ambulance costs Rs 1.7 lakh and Rs 15,000 per month is
investment to keep it running.
Founding member of Saathi NGO, Bhupesh Tiwari says that before
the motorcycle ambulance was introduced cases of unorganised
delivery were high and mothers used to die often due to lack of
proper treatment.
He said that the motorcycle-ambulance has successfully ferried
over 300 patients to the hospitals from “adverse areas”, of whom 80
per cent are pregnant women.
“After the inception of this project the number of organised
deliveries has increased in this conflict bound region. It will
certainly improve the infant as well as maternal mortality rate in
the region,” Tiwari told IANS.
