The rise in Covid-19 cases in the country has also led to a sharp rise in demand for ambulances. For example, Delhi-based healthcare startup Medulance says it has witnessed a 3x surge in demand for its ambulance service amid the ongoing pandemic. The end-to-end emergency response service provider, which was founded in 2017, recorded a jump of 350,000 new subscribers on its platform after the Covid-19 outbreak in India, it said on Monday. The company attributed the uptick in demand to the ease of booking, tracking, timely diagnosis by its emergency services, and a dedicated helpline number.
Medulance co-founder Pranav Bajaj said that while India ranked second in the world in terms of the number of Covid-19 cases (the figure was close to 5.5 million on Monday), it lacked ambulances to ferry suspected patients to designated hospitals. “Each minute of delay in starting emergency treatment reduces survival by 7%-10%,” he said, adding that the traditional ambulance services have failed to cater to the growing demand for fast, qualitative, and accessible ambulatory services in India.
“We aim to organise end-to-end first point contact services with high-quality ambulances, trained drivers, and dedicated services. Our three-fold objective is a revolutionary step to build an emergency ecosystem,” he said. Medulance, which lets users book an ambulance via and app and track it, is present in 22 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, and has helped more than 50,000 patients till date, it claims.
According to Medulance, thanks to the dearth of quality resuscitation manoeuvres and services, more and more Indians prefer private ambulatory services for emergency diagnosis. The startup’s GPS-enabled ambulances and highly trained frontline staff help Medulance reach patients within 25 minutes of booking the service, it claims. The company uses portable ECG machines and cameras inside an ambulance to relay patient data and images to the emergency rooms of hospitals so that doctors can give life-saving instructions to the paramedics on board.
Since its inception, the startup has seen 4x growth in the demand for ambulatory services by individuals, organisations, and the government. The company claims it has a 100% response rate for its emergency helpline calls, powered by its technological capabilities that allow fast booking and tracking of first-point medical attention in no time. Medulance projects a 400% growth in the next financial year.
