Medulance Healthcare, a leading ambulance and paramedical services aggregator, was born out of the need to increase the reliability and access to world-class ambulatory services in India.
Mr. Pranav Bajaj, Co-founder, Medulance Healthcare during his conversation with Mumbai Live elaborated on what led to the establishment of this enterprise. He said, “The idea first came about in 2010 because of an unfortunate incident involving my friend and the company’s co-founder Ravjot Arora. The absence of quality ambulance service resulted in the loss of Ravjot’s grandfather to a heart attack. This event pushed us to think about the future of ambulatory services in India and thereon in 2017 we decided to launch a private ambulance service.”
With an aggregated 5000+ ambulances and an ambulance dispatch time of 3-4 minutes, they undertake several measures to ensure that they live up to this commitment amidst heavy congestion or demand. These measures include the likes of adequate training of manpower, investment in technology and inventory management, stakeholders’ apps, GPS, geomapping, strategic placement of ambulances in high-density pockets and high-risk prone areas too. Apart from this, they also go through regular meticulous checks for equipment, to be prepared for any request.
Whilst their journey began in New Delhi in 2017, they have managed to expand their footprint to Mumbai as well. Bajaj shared with us foresight into the market scenario in the island city. He stated, “We have allocated 200 ambulances at present in Mumbai and have been consistently getting approximately 30-35 emergency calls a day. Thus, we have ramped up our services in the city and will add more ambulances in the next few months.”
Bajaj then also elucidated the ground situation during the coronavirus pandemic in Mumbai. He mentioned, “The situation in Mumbai was quite intense, especially during the second wave. We received over 100 distress calls every day during that time. These calls were mainly for ambulances, oxygen cylinders and hospital admission requests for the COVID-19 patients. This was when the average hospital admission time had increased by nearly three times. To put things into perspective, pre-COVID-19, one ambulance normally catered to 1-2 requests on an average each day which then increased to 5-6 during COVID-19.”
He then also highlighted specific areas in Mumbai, wherein the demand for his ambulance services was higher when compared to the rest. These comprised, Andheri East, Vasai, Navi Mumbai, Chembur, Bandra, Bhiwandi and Malad. Other statistics that he brought to light included that prominently the 35-60 age group was seen availing his ambulance service in Mumbai during the peak of the pandemic.
Apart from COVID-19, other most frequent ailments for which patients have used Medulance Healthcare service are fracture, dialysis, cancer, asthma, pregnancy, trauma, abdominal pain, tuberculosis, paralysis and heart attack.
Further, into the conversation, Bajaj spoke about the MeduAlert program that covers 30 Lakh subscribers. He added, “The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed the new normal, especially for the working class. As most employees are working from home, we understand the responsibility of organizations to cater to the safety needs of their employees and family members, both at the workplace and at home. MeduAlert is our offering for organizations to take care of the emergency needs of their employees and family members via a dedicated helpline for their organization. This will be the first time that an “end-to-end emergency service" is launched at this scale for organizations.”
Launched in June 2020, MeduAlert has many perks since it’s specially customized for organizations. With first aid communication within 30 seconds, there is 100% assurance of getting your call answered along with access to a Medulance fleet of 5000+ ambulances. In addition to this, there is a response time of 30 minutes alongside highly skilled and trained paramedics and drivers. Bajaj shared further details into this saying, “We have onboarded over 45 clients and have a subscriber base of 30 lakh employees and family members across India. We are now working with hospitals on a similar model and cater to an average of 200 calls daily”. He annotated, “Our partnership with healthcare providers has enabled us to give access to telemedicine, diagnostics, dialysis, pharmacy, home healthcare and mental wellness along with on-call ambulance service. Medulance is looking forward to creating a Super App to cater all the possible emergency requirements at a touch of a button”.
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