Astana encourages ambulance alternatives
ASTANA. KAZINFORM Taxis instead of ambulance cars? Yes, it is quite possible in Astana, which is going to follow the experience of Istanbul, Turkey, where no specialized ambulance vehicles are used. According to Deputy Chief of the Astana Municipal Healthcare Department Ivan Lee, Turkish hospitals send their doctors and nurses to the patients' houses by taxis.
“We are going to pilot this system since March 2. In general, we plan to hire 25 7-seater cars for emergency ambulance calls,” said Lee.
The municipal healthcare department expects that this novelty will let upgrade the quality of the ambulance service.
He explained, that the share of immediately life-threatening or Category 1 and 2 calls (like childbirth, heart attacks, serious traumas and other similar cases) makes only 30% of all 103 calls.
Astana whose population is 871,000, requires 90 ambulance cars, while their number today is only 52.