Comments
As many as 18 hospitals, both government and private, have come on board
As many as 18 hospitals have signed up with UberMedic, the newly-launched dedicated service for healthcare workers, a top Uber India official said.
In about a fortnight since launch, UberMedic is now available in 10 cities for transporting healthcare workers, Pavan Vaish, Head of Central Operations, Uber India and South Asia, told BusinessLine .
“We are seeing a lot of traction not just with government hospitals but also with private hospitals, that have signed up. We see a lot of interest among private hospitals that are reaching out to us for leveraging this service,” Vaish said.
The UberMedic service for transporting frontline healthcare workers during their Covid-19 duties is now live in New Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Patna.
“Over the next few days, UberMedic cars will also be provided at no charge to several public hospitals in Ghaziabad, Kanpur and Prayagraj,” he said.
As part of the ongoing pilot with the National Health Authority (NHA), all UberMedic cars are fitted with a roof-to-floor plastic sheeting enclosing the driver, which acts as a protective barrier to limit contact between the driver and the rider.
“We are practising social distancing within the confines of a UberMedic car — the driver and the riders are separated by a physical, yet transparent, barrier. It prevents transmission. Some hospitals have even approached us to get this done in their own vehicles,” Vaish added.
The leading hospitals that have signed up for UberMedic are Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, Metropolis Healthcare, GHV Advanced Care and State Health Society, Bihar.
“These are difficult times. We are super excited about playing a role in assisting Indian authorities and the Government of India in these trying Covid-19 times,” he said.
Uber Care Driver Fund
Vaish said that driver partners on Uber’s platform have already started receiving the first batch of grants from the ₹25 crore deposited by Uber into the Uber Care Driver Fund. This fund has been created in partnership with Give India and Samhita, both leading social enterprises.
As the world comes to a standstill due to Covid-19, Uber has also invited contributions from riders to support driver partners and their families get through these challenging times, he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.