Saturday, February 5 2005 14:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The country's first two-wheeler ambulance (TWA), intended to play a significant role in reducing loss of lives due to crammed roads delaying free and fast movement of regular ambulances was launched at Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad today (Feb 5, 2005) by the Apollo Hospitals.

The driver of "Apollo First" and the pillion rider would both be paramedics trained to handle all trauma emergencies from fractures to shock or even perform a Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation, if necessary, chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group Dr Prathap C Reddy said.

The TWA was equipped to provide immediate trauma care to patients and be the lead vehicle to conventional ambulances.

The TWAs, the brainchild of the hospital's National Network Emergency Services director, Dr Hari Prasad, had been conceptualised to manoeuvre efficiently through congested roads and provide emergency care to patients during the crucial post 'platinum ten minutes' and the 'golden hour', Reddy told media persons after the launch at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai.

Apart from handling road accidents during peak hours, these ambulances would be able to reach areas where the movement of regular ambulances was restricted.

Earlier, jointly flagging of a couple of ambulances with Dr Reddy, City Police Commissioner R Nataraj, pointed out that despite the metropolis having about 250 Government and private ambulances, a number of lives were lost due to delay in regular ambulances arriving at the point of call, largely due to traffic congestion.