Here's why this emergency ambulance service start-up is witnessing a high growth in demand

Highlighting the unmet need of quick availability of ambulances in India, emergency ambulance service start-up StanPlus has witnessed a growth in demand at a CAGR of 43.10 per cent in the last three years.

The start-up has so far raised $22.6 million and is present in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Raipur, Bhuvneshwar, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata. The company is focusing on expanding its offerings across 15 cities this year, and simultaneously reducing its ETAs and improving clinical outcomes from current 15 minutes. “We have served close to 140,000 patients so far and have grown to 184 per cent since 2016,” said Prabhdeep Singh, founder and CEO of StanPlus.

The demand for emergency and quality ambulances has always been high in India . According to a report published by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), 98.5 per cent of ambulances in India exist to carry dead bodies, 90 per cent of ambulances are without any equipment/oxygen, 95 per cent of ambulances have untrained personnel, most of the doctors having no formal training in emergency medical services (EMS), misuse of government ambulances and 30 per cent mortality is due to delay in emergency care.

“Although India's healthcare industry is improving and reaching top-tier standards, the country's emergency medical response system is sadly falling behind. Overall, the segment presents a significant room for development because it is disconnected, disorganised, and has poor response mechanisms. Lack of access to trained paramedics, advanced technology, and high-quality ambulances is a major problem that people in India are facing,” said Singh.

“The EMS in our country struggles with two main problems: first, getting to the patient on time and, second, offering key services like triaging, vital sharing, and having an ambulance that is equipped to execute life-saving procedures like ALS, BLS, and CPR within the "golden hour." The issue won't be resolved until and unless a trained and equipped emergency response team is ready for dispatch within seconds of the patient's calls,” he said.

The larger goal of StanPlus is to create a 911 like model for Indian healthcare and build an Uber-like technology for ambulances in India.

"To accomplish this goal, we have taken significant steps in the way forward. We have gotten great responses from the hospital fraternity as they were equally facing challenges in running an internal logistics vertical which wasn’t able to ensure timely response during the critical golden hour. Backed by network of over 3000 Ambulances, We are further aiming to be in 15 more cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Kochi, Indore, Pune, Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, and Ranchi and partner with 100 hospital brand by the end of this calendar year,” Singh said.

StanPlus already commits to a 15-minute window, and the company is leveraging technology to further decrease the time window.

“With our demand ramp, we can increase density of these ambulances in high flow areas and ensure response times are minimised. At the same time, our deep integration with hospitals ensure that the destination is informed and ready as well. In addition to technology, we also want hospitals to outsource their ambulance and patient transportation vertical to us,” said Singh.

While the government remains the biggest buyer and payer in the emergency space, the problem, the company said, is that non-ambulance and untrained operators are running the 108 contracts across the states.

“At this point, we are focused on expanding to different markets through private channels, but we are starting our journey of conversing with state governments on how can we bring our state-of-the-art medical response and scale it up beyond large cities,” said Singh.

Also Read: NEET-UG: Delhi HC dismisses plea to postpone exam scheduled on July 17

Also Read: WPI inflation eases to 15.18% in June as against 15.88% in May