Suwa Seriya expands its operations Launches mobile app

By Yoshitha Perera 

The ‘Suwa Seriya’ free ambulance service with the code number 1990, which was implemented in the Western and Southern Provinces in 2017 has today expanded its service to cover eight provinces in the country and will have a national coverage with the launch of Eastern Province later this month, Non Cabinet Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution Dr. Harsha de Silva said yesterday.   

During the launch of its new Emergency Dispatch Management (EDM) and 1990 mobile app, the Minister said that in the Western Province the service has a good coverage and the response time is nearly eight minutes.   

“It has been found through research that every minute of reduced response time increases the chances of survival by approximately 10%. Currently, the average response time for 1990 ambulance service is 8 minutes and 23 seconds in the Western Province and 11 minutes and 25 seconds in other provinces which is comparable to or better than most developed countries,” he said.   

The Minister said that the first phase of the project was implemented with a grant of USD 7.5 million from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.   

“We received this amount as a gift and usually projects which started using a gifted amount will stop its functioning when that amount gets reduced. But this Suwa Seriya project has expanded its service in a more efficient manner,” he said.  

The project was first launched in Hambantota, Matara, Galle, Kalutara, Gampaha and Colombo with a fleet of 88 ambulances, the Minister said.   

“After implementing the project at the two provinces, Western and Southern, we had handed over the service at both provinces to the government,” he said.   

The Minister highlighted that when implementing the second phase of the project at the other seven provinces, the country had received another grant amounting to USD 15.5 million.  

“There are no conditions attached to these grants as wrongly communicated by persons with vested interests. In 2018, operations of the service were transferred to the 1990 Suwa Seriya Foundation created by an Act of Parliament,” he said.  

The Minister said that the foundation is totally owned by the Government and operates under the Ministry of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution.   

He said that the significance of the new EDM and 1990 app is that it makes the service second to none in emergency dispatch systems anywhere in the world and the total operation cost per year was calculated as Rs. 2 billion.   

“As at May 03, 2019, the service had answered 1,057,571 numbers of calls and strict protocols are followed when responding to emergency cases,” Minister said.   

He also said that the service had employed over 1,428 young Sri Lankan men and women in the service and currently the Ministry had submitted a Cabinet paper to implement a better payment method for this staff. 

 
He further elaborated that the staff, especially Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) have been trained in India with special skills when treating patients and they always contact the doctor on call at the Emergency Command and Control Centre (ECCC).