The GVK EMRI maternal and neonatal transport system in India: a mega plan for a mammoth problem

Maternal and infant mortality has been a major concern in India with the Government taking serious efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Ganapathy Venkata Krishna Reddy Emergency Management and Research Institute (GVK EMRI) is one such effort and is the country's first emergency service provider working under the public-private partnership model to provide emergency response services and quality pre-hospital care to any sick person, pregnant mothers, and sick neonates. Since the introduction of the emergency medical services, institutional deliveries have increased in all states and union territories where the ambulances have been deployed and the majority of mothers have been provided the required emergency care at the appropriate time. This in turn has helped in considerably reducing the maternal mortality. GVK EMRI has partnered with the government of Tamil Nadu and deployed specialized neonatal ambulances to ensure safe transport of newborns. The safe transport of sick, vulnerable neonates and the improvement in survival of transported neonates over the years advocate scaling up of this program to other states, which would greatly contribute towards reducing infant and neonatal mortality.