In a gesture of goodwill and neighborliness, Indian officials transferred 88 ambulances to Sri Lanka counterparts back in 2016.
Now, ten years on, this gift has turned out to be a lifesaving one for 1.5 million Sri Lankans who have ridden and received urgent care in the back of those ambulances and the ones added to the fleet in the following years.
At the time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over the ambulances and Sri Lanka was able to launch the nation’s first national emergency service—equivalent to our 911 or Britain’s 999.
“Today, the fleet size of ambulances has grown to 322. It is used to provide free emergency transportation services to the whole country day and night,” Sri Lankan Minister of Health and Media Nalinda Jayatissa told Modi in a communication last Saturday.
Jayatissa said that national statistics report that 2.44 million people have received care in these ambulances for things like cardiac arrest, stroke, and road accidents. 65% of these were in the “golden hour” where medical care within a few minutes can make the difference between life and death immediately.
“That is nearly 1.5 million lives saved up to now due to your generosity, and continues to save lives in Sri Lanka,” Jayatissa said.
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Sri Lanka ranks well above other South Asian countries in the Human Development Index with an index score of 0.750, and out of 142 countries surveyed by the World Economic Forum, Sri Lanka cracked the top-third in terms of health industry. That was in 2011, before the ambulance donations arrived.
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More modern estimates keep Sri Lanka ahead of other South Asian economies for health industry development, and the island has eradicated several infectious diseases ahead of established targets. Its life expectancy of 75.5 years at birth is 10% higher than the world average, and the country is ranked number 5 on the World Giving Index which ranks charitable behavior and gestures among the population.
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