The Nepal Ambulance Service (NAS) is an independent non-profit initiative dedicated to creating a professional ambulance service benefiting greater Kathmandu and Patan.
NAS was created to specifically respond to the problems created by the lack of a professional ambulance service or Emergency Medical System (EMS) in Nepal. EMS is pre-hospital emergency care performed in the field; it offers a variety of medical interventions some of which include splinting fractures, bracing neck + spinal cord injuries, stopping bleeding, clearing air passageways, and starting IV fluids for patients in shock.
Each ambulance will be furnished with specialized life saving equipment and a highly trained Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Training of EMTs will be led by doctors and nurses from Stanford Medical School’s Emergency Medicine International (USA).
With pre-hospital emergency care administered to patients at the pick-up point or scene of an accident as well as while on-route to the closest appropriate hospital, NAS ambulances will be saving lives along the way.
NAS ambulances will comprise both state-of-the-art Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances. Equipment includes IV fluids, oxygen, suction pump, bandages + dressings, collapsible wheeled stretcher-trolley, spine board with head immobilizer, scoop stretcher, vacuum splints, cervical collar and folding wheelchair /stair chair. See Tour the Ambulance.
Starting on 16 November 2010 a toll free emergency telephone number - 102 - will reach the NAS dispatch center where an agent will screen the call for response details and dispatch the closest available ambulance via VHF radio.
Telephone and Dispatch Center will screen calls + track ambulance response. NAS dispatch software has the ability to pin-point the location of callers using landlines.
Not only does radio dispatching speed the arrival of NAS ambulances on scene, additionally EMTs will evaluate the nature of a victim’s injuries and radio communications with the dispatch center will help direct ambulances to appropriate hospitals in cases where very specific types of treatment are required.
NAS started with 5 ambulances strategically placed around the Kathmanud valley, 1 in Chitwan and will expand to Kavre, Dhading, Pokhara and Butwal.
The service & transportation will charge as per the Nepal Government Rules.
In order to make the services of NAS available to everyone, including those who do not have the means to pay, NAS will seek funding to cover the needy.