Fighting covid-19 top hospitals in Delhi NCR using ‘UberMedic’ to ferry healthcare workers

New Delhi: Leading hospitals in Delhi NCR such as Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Safdarjung Hospital, are using Uber’s recently launched UberMedic service as India continues to fight the spread of COVID-19 under an extended national lockdown. These public hospitals will get UberMedic cars free of cost to transport frontline health workers across the city as part of the 10 million free rides being offered globally as per an announcement made by Uber’s CEO Khosrowshahi earlier.
The UberMedic service is now open to public and private hospitals across ten Indian cities: New Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow and Patna with 18 leading Indian hospitals already using it. Based on an agreement with the National Health Authority (NHA), Uber is making its Medic cars available to many of these public sector hospitals free of cost. Over the next few days, UberMedic cars will also be provided at no charge to several public hospitals in Ghaziabad, Kanpur and Prayagraj. In addition, Uber will also be providing the UberMedic cars to private hospitals on an at-cost basis with a view to support livelihoods of its driver partners.
 
Sharing details about the service, Pavan Vaish, Head of Central Operations, Uber India and South Asia, said, “By leveraging our global experience, technology and network of drivers, UberMedic allows us to facilitate reliable and convenient transport to India’s real heroes, our medical workers, who’re helping keep our communities safe. I also wish to thank UberMedic drivers, who transport our frontline healthcare workers to and from their homes and to healthcare facilities. We feel privileged to be supporting the Indian government in helping contain the spread of COVID-19 and stand ready to speedily scale up UberMedic to more hospitals across the country.”
UberMedic driver, Pawan Kumar, said, “We transport doctors and nurses from their homes to hospitals and back. I feel a sense of pride in doing this because we are helping protect the entire country. I feel proud to be an UberMedic driver. I feel like I’m a soldier for the country. Our respected doctors and nurses are already fighting this battle for the country and we want to support them, so we are also serving the country.”
As part of an ongoing pilot with the 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. In order to set the highest possible safety and hygiene standards, all UberMedic drivers are being specially trained in safety procedures and equipped with personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, sanitizers and disinfectants.