Georgia upgrades ambulance fleet

Georgia is modernizing its ambulance service. The country's ambulance fleet will undergo a complete overhaul and every vehicle will be replaced by the beginning of next year, an official said.

The Health Ministry said it had begun this process and had already purchased and fitted 12 new vehicles to date. By the end of this year, 220 old ambulance vehicles will be replaced by new service vehicles.

Health Minister Davit Segreenko watched on as new ambulances were fitted with top-of-the-line medical equipment today. He said the new vehicles would be distributed to regions of the country where new ambulances were in most need.

Sergeenko said 10 percent of ambulances were up to one hour late to appointments in rural areas.

"This is not good. We should not have had a single case when an ambulance was late but this analysis let us identified the weak spots and work on them,” the Minister said.

As well as new vehicles, the uniforms of ambulance staff would also be changed. (agenda.ge)