One control centre, one network of ambulances: how Golden Goal is meant to work

Background

The Health department is launching Golden Goal, a comprehensive emergency care scheme meant to save the lives of people seriously injured in road accidents by getting them the right treatment in time. The aim is to read the nature and the severity of an injury correctly and to reach the most suitable hospital as fast as possible. In its first phase the scheme is being tried in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha. The Integrated Command and Control Centre is to be widened so that it coordinates 108 ambulances together with the government ambulances under the Health department and the Medical Education department. Later phases are to bring private ambulances, private hospitals and voluntary organisations into the same network. Tracking, mapping and a computer-based dispatch system are to send the nearest suitable ambulance to the spot soonest. A patient's condition and injury details go from the ambulance to the control centre and on to the hospital, so that doctors and trauma teams can prepare before the patient arrives. Emergency treatment is assured at government hospitals and at the private hospitals that come under KASP and PM-JAY.