Union Budget 2017 should focus on the Emergency Medical Service industry

The Union Budget of 2016 -17 opened a lot of avenues for the healthcare sector as various schemes and policies has been announced to further equip the healthcare sector of the country. While the budget specifically focused on improving the livelihood of the rural population we didn't see much focus on the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) industry.

The government should make more investments to raise awareness on the Good Samaritan Law so that people are not skeptical when aiding accident victims. Urban as well as rural road infrastructure needs to be improved for efficient functioning of ambulance services ensuring their response time is within the Golden Hour. Common or Unified Emergency Network service number should be established across states by partnering with private players to provide prompt quality pre-hospital care to accident victims, fire victims, pregnant women and cardiac emergencies.