NAS expands fleet in HP, adds 60 more ambulances

Himachal Pradesh government has added 60 more ambulances to its existing fleet under the National Ambulance Service (NAS).
The induction of new ambulances in the 108-ambulance NAS service has now upped its fleet strength to 172 vehicles, which are equipped with life saving devices, medicines and trained staff, a government spokesman said today.
The services was first started on December 25, 2010 as Atal Swasthya Yojana-108, which was christened as NAS by the UPA government later on, he said.
NAS has so far handled 3,25,178 emergencies in the state including 10,840 police and 2,555 fire emergencies, 16,230 vehicular trauma cases, 13,537 cardiac related cases and 16,350 respiratory distress related cases, the spokesman said.

2,353 successful deliveries have been conducted in the ambulances itself by emergency medical technicians and 55,790 pregnant women availed the service to reach hospital well in time, which helped in reducing infant and mother mortality rate in the state, he added.