Emergency Response Rates in India

What happens when you have a medical emergency? 

Do you pick up the phone and call 911? Have someone close to you drive you to get medical help? And what happens once you get to the ER? You know it’s open, accepting patients, and medical staff will attend to your crisis. 

What happens when this isn’t in the U.S.?

In fact, what do you think happens in a developing country? Simple answer: it’s very complicated. In India, it can take hours for a taxi to the hospital to arrive, let alone a properly equipped ambulance. Over half of all deaths annually are from solvable problems with reduced mortality rates if there is a rapid emergency response. 

In Chicago, the ambulance response time is 7 minutes and 18 seconds.

The Illinois state standard time is six minutes. Within India, the disparity between healthcare infrastructure in rural versus urban centers is very wide. Metrics, such as infant mortality rates and the lack of doctors and hospitals in rural areas, highlight the severe inequality between the healthcare infrastructure of urban and rural areas.

As a result of this disparity, rural areas often only have immediate access to community healthcare centers that are not equipped to deal with more complex emergencies. This can result in hours lapsing between the emergency occurring and the patient reaching a community health center ill-equipped for more complex emergencies.

India’s progress towards a better emergency response system

In recent years, steps have been taken to improve India’s emergency response system. The government has centralized the emergency call center, created a universal emergency phone number, and significantly invested in public health care. This improved life expectancy and decreased infant mortality rates. However, emergency response systems continue to struggle meeting the demand for rapid emergency healthcare. 

As COVID-19 has swept across India, this burden has increased tremendously. The pandemic has highlighted even more starkly than before India’s pressing need for increased and faster emergency responses.

If emergency response rates can be improved across rural and urban areas, India could achieve a significant reduction in preventable deaths.