Emergency medical services are an integration of hospital-based emergency service and pre-hospital emergency care. Emergency medical response services primarily comprise pre-hospital emergency care. The integration of these two systems delivers quality and timely medical care that is known to saves lives and decrease mortality and morbidity.
Prior to July 2019, there was no robust or quality care EMRS available in the war-torn valley of Kashmir. There was no emergency response number where a common person can call and request emergency ambulance care services. Ambulances available largely function as transportation vehicles mostly without any necessary medical equipment or trained paramedical staff. This has a huge healthcare impact in Kashmir. Most of the time there is a significant delay in receiving emergency medical care as the pre-hospital care was non-existent. Patients are either brought dead or declared dead once they arrive in the emergency room. Civil shutdowns, the government imposed curfews and crackdowns make it extremely inconvenient, and in certain cases impossible to obtain timely emergency medical care. As a result, mortality and morbidity rates go up drastically.
KASHMER (Kashmiri American Society for Health Care Medical Education and Research) organization is driven by passionate individuals desirous of changing the “transport vehicle concept of ambulances” to “lifesaving emergency medical transportation,” and keen on having an evidence-based EMS driven by technology and trained personnel and not restricted by financial status.
KASHMER successfully launched first ever EMRS system in Jammu and Kashmir on July 19th, 2019 that delivers high-quality lifesaving ambulance service in Kashmir. Pilot EMRS project was initiated in Srinagar city and subsequently extended to the entire Srinagar district. By the grace of God EMS service has grown significantly. EMS is now available in 4 districts of Kashmir Valley which includes Srinagar, Baramulla, Anantnag and Kupwara.
KASHMER ambulances are well equipped to handle any medical or surgical emergency. All the ambulances are equipped with lifesaving defibrillator, ECG machine, 5 channel monitor, Oxygen supply and other lifesaving drugs and ancillary equipment. People who are in need of such services can call this service 24/7. Numbers to call are 91-9484100200 and 91-194-2310018. This service is run in partnership with HELP foundation J&K.
EMS service is supervised closely by Healthcare Delivery Committee of KASHMER. EMS team on ground in Kashmir comprises of a full time well trained and experienced project manager, ALS certified triage physicians who are available 24/7 to receive the calls, ALS certified Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and BLS trained pilots.
This is what KASHMER EMS has done so far:
EMS service in 4 districts of Kashmir valley
Total number of calls triaged is around 2000
Total number of patients served more than 1000
Average response time to complete the operation is less than 30 minutes.
We continue to work hard to increase awareness and educate people about the life threatening conditions and to make use of KASHMER EMS service.
