Appreciating Suwaseriya’s silent heroes

A drill conducted by Sri Lanka Navy along with the Suwaseriya Ambulance Service rehearsing the SOP to transfer a suspected COV

The 1990 Suwaseriya Paramedic Ambulance Service has been in the frontline of the anti-coronavirus battle in the country. A concept that came to light from a personal experience in 2016, is continuing to save the lives of thousands of people islandwide. The Ambulance service first launched in the Southern and Western Provinces with 88 ambulances, utilising a USD 7.55 million grant from India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi following a suggestion by then state minister Dr. Harsha De Silva. Another USD 12 million grant was then given to expand the service to most parts of the country. Today, with 297 ambulances, completing between 1500-2000 hospital transfers a day, the staff is rendering a yeoman service at this time of need. 

Service up-scaled during curfew

“98.5% of calls are being answered in the first ring itself,” said Dumindra Ratnayake, 1990 Suwaseriya Foundation Chairman. “Since the curfew we have been getting four times more calls than usual. People were worried when they got symptoms of a common cold because they were similar to that of COVID-19. Suwasariya Ambulance Service is operating together with the Epidemiology Unit of Ministry of Health where we have formulated a questionnaire for those who call us. If it triggers a positive case we would dispatch an ambulance. Otherwise we tell them that they do not need to visit a hospital. This is because we cannot handle the overwhelming number of calls as well as it is not advisable to send many people to hospitals when considering the present situation,” said Ratnayake. 
“In case we need to send an ambulance, we then find the fastest ambulance to the location and this is done in 1.5 minutes. The average time to reach a destination is 8 minutes in Colombo city limits. When we started receiving calls due to coronavirus cases the holding time started at five minutes. If it is not a life threatening case we would get back to them in 15 minutes where our outbound team would follow up.  From our early beginnings we have been focused on using technology to increase efficiency. We were able to scale up to four times the usual load since the systems and protocols were in place,” he added.

"Suwasariya Ambulance Service is operating together with the Epidemiology Unit of Ministry of Health"

Silent heroes

“With the curfew many people couldn’t find transport to reach hospitals for semi-emergencies such as pregnant women,” he continued. “Previously we transported emergency cases, but not those who were cancer or dialysis patients, who had to pay routine visits to hospitals. But with the curfew we started accommodating them as well. That was when the number of calls increased and we doubled the capacity of the call centre. We therefore had to get administrative staff to answer the calls. At any given time, 50% of our ambulances are taking patients and there have been instances when all ambulances were travelling. But we appreciate the support extended by our staff with no complaints whatsoever. On the other hand we had to take care of them and keep them away from being exposed to the virus. We have a challenge in finding protective gear. Once used they have to be disposed as well. So when we get a call we ask if the caller has been abroad recently, whether they have been exposed to foreigners, have any unusual symptoms or whether they have been in self quarantine. If there’s a yes to any of these questions we ask our staff to wear protective gear. We have organised transport for our head office staff. Some of them live for rent and they have challenges in trying to find food. The senior staff is working 16 hours a day. Once we drop a person at a hospital we sanitize the ambulance before we send it to pickup the next patient,” he said. 

"The average time to reach a destination is 8 minutes in Colombo city limits. When we started receiving calls due to coronavirus cases the holding time started at five minutes"

“Prior to the coronavirus outbreak we used to complete around 1000 hospital transfers every day,” he added. “Most of the COVID-19 cases have been taken by the Suwasariya Ambulance Service totaling up to 1500-2000 hospital transfers every day. There’s a huge workload now and we are trying to cater to real emergencies. We want to save lives. However we have stopped transporting patients to private hospitals and will only be sending them to government hospitals. So feel free to call 1990 if you feel uncomfortable or during any other emergency. Please be patient to answer a few questions. We don’t diagnose an illness when there’s a call. Depending on the nature of answers given, we decide what to do next,” he added. 
Ratnayake also thanked the support extended by Suwaseriya Foundation CEO Sohan De Silva who has been working effortlessly to ensure the smooth running of operations. 

A service appreciated by 21 million people

“We are pleased that we have been able to overcome the blocks along the way to become Sri Lanka’s most efficient public service today,” said Dr. Harsha De Silva, the brainchild of the project. “Our staff is totally dedicated. We wanted to ensure the success of this project beyond our term of office and that is why we got new legislation in place in 2018. Therefore we introduced the 1990 Suwaseriya Foundation Act, No. 18 of 2018 to establish the foundation as an independent body. We wanted to give the authority to the President to appoint a board and run its operations. We wanted to ensure that it is running the way it is designed. This isn’t a political milestone because it is serving all Sri Lankans. None of the members in the Board are being remunerated and we are doing this on a voluntary scale.” said Dr. De silva. 
“As the person who originated the project I want to see it progressing. We want to upgrade the skills of Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) to paramedics. There are many things we have thought of when we initiated the project. We appreciate the positive attitude of the government and Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi irrespective of who started it. This is the kind of politics we need today. This is an absolute satisfaction for me because even after my term in office there’s something that 21 million people appreciate today,” he concluded.