Assistance to develop system to inform public the cost of (1990 ambulance) service

[hiranya]

1990 Suwaseriya is a foundation setup by act of Parliament. The purpose is to provide a Pre Hospital Care Ambulance service to the people of Sri Lanka. The service is provided free of charge. The act allows the foundation to raise funds to provide the service, shortfall is funded by the Government.

The service provided across the island through a fleet of 300 ambulances. We currently maintain an response time of approx 8.5 mins in Colombo District and 13.5 mins outside. Today, Over 1000 cases are attended to daily. Emergency calls are handled by a 24x7 call enter with 99% of the calls answered within the first ring. The operation is totally Technology linked to ensure best service quality and efficiency in cost management.

There is a need to provide a invoice to the public when is service provided for the purpose of indicating the cost incurred. This is not to charge for the service but to indicate the cost so that public appreciates same.

The request is to develop a system as a community project.

Much appreciate if a meeting is setup to discuss a way forward at your earliest.

Best regards

Dumindra Ratnayaka Chairman 1990 Suwaseriya Foundation

[dakshika]

I would like to contribute to this. Let us know the details.

[shageevan]

I would like to contribute to this as well. Please do let us know the details.

[shriyananda]

Hi Duminda, please count me in.

[developeerr]

I would love to contribute.

[SampathDilhan]

Could you please share more details? Happy to contribute on this.

[jayanath1987]

I am in

[sanjiva]

I think this is a great idea! We should write this as a generic utility that can be used to show the cost of govt services at any place that wants to do it.

Dumi can you please get someone to write up a set of requirements in a bit of detail? I can help frame it but we need to find a volunteer to BA this a bit. Let's target getting a PoC done very fast and get it scaled out to all ambulances within say 6 months (subject to how long it takes to get printers etc.).

[anilherath]

Is there any possibility to avoid printed invoices here? This will results additional capital and running cost to suwaseriya project, which is not generating financial revenue. If you can go for a web-dashboard / SMS enabled solution, that will make more impact also.

[anilherath]

I can participate in requirement gathering too.

[shageevan]

@sanjiva Agreed. That’s more scalable.

[dumindra]

See attached the requirement in summary

1990 invoice system ver 2 .pdf

[daatlk]

As @anilherath says would be good to avoid printed invoices which would add another cost to the service. Cost of SMS would be nominal.

[erangakapukotuwa]

Count me in

[dumindra]

@anilherath @daatlk SMS is less effective. In many cases the person who calls the Service are non-related bystanders. In such a case Sending a SMS to the person who called will not serve the purpose. Many persons, especially living in rural areas, are not SMS savy. Some have “dumb” phones which do not support sinhala and tamil text etc. we also get calls from fixed numbers (landlines).

On the other hand, thermal paper today is not expensive, a 56mmx50mm paper roll that can print about 500+ invoices costs around Rs. 100 or less. Thus, an invoice will cost around Rs. 0.20 which will be similar to the cost of sending SMS.

[banduwgs]

@anilherath @daatlk SMS is less effective. In many cases the person who calls the Service are non-related bystanders. In such a case Sending a SMS to the person who called will not serve the purpose. Many persons, especially living in rural areas, are not SMS savy. Some have “dumb” phones which do not support sinhala and tamil text etc. we also get calls from fixed numbers (landlines).

On the other hand, thermal paper today is not expensive, a 56mmx50mm paper roll that can print about 500+ invoices costs around Rs. 100 or less. Thus, an invoice will cost around Rs. 0.20 which will be similar to the cost of sending SMS.

Dear Dumindra, we have already done a solution with mobile application and portable printer for rural sand port operation called "Welithota app" which was recognized in last e-Swabhimani, 2019 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBTNtbxRjRs). If you would like, we bring the same to demonstrate & we are happy to contribute in BA & even solution development for the given scope.

For any further clarifications needed drop an email.

Best regards, Sumith

[dumindra]

@banduwgs We have requested ICTA to help develop this system as a community project, your assistance to same will be appreciated

[banduwgs]

Sure @dumindra; please advice me next step in getting involved (E.g. whom to contact; when/where/how?)

[anilherath]

@dumindra , Appreciate the feedback. Agree on your highlights saying the SMS method will be less effective in rural areas and the cost of thermal paper is low. On the other hand, providing a printed copy of invoice may be less effective in city areas. An example is the project to provide medical invoices in 2013.

Therefore, my suggestion is, at least to keep the options to send SMS and update the web to get maximum benefit of the suggested solution. EMT can decide whether he need to print the invoice, send by SMS or Just save the details in order to send alert to '1990 - Ambulance' App. ( 1990 - Ambulance app having 10000+ downloads from August, 2019).

In addition to that, I would like to do some suggestions on the requirement summery.

Purpose:
This should not be limited to aware the patient by leading them to appreciate the service and avoid misusing the service. Instead if you can provide more structured data visualization through different channels such as internet accessible dashboards, social media, printed graphs/ charts in hospitals, clinics, weekly media releases etc., this will results a social impact that drive public ( not only the benefited patient ) to appreciate the service and demotivate the misuse of the service. Most probably these numbers can impact on donations from different segments of people.

Therefore, If you can expand the requirement to that level, the result will be more effective and social driven with relatively less effort. ( Most probably the purpose of item 08 in your requirement list is similar to this).

Invoice format If you can add QR code with the URL, that will be easy for the user. We can make this QR code available in public for donation ( eg: in Hospitals, Airports, Supermarkets etc) also.

[dumindra]

@dumindra , Appreciate the feedback. Agree on your highlights saying the SMS method will be less effective in rural areas and the cost of thermal paper is low. On the other hand, providing a printed copy of invoice may be less effective in city areas. An example is the project to provide medical invoices in 2013.

Therefore, my suggestion is, at least to keep the options to send SMS and update the web to get maximum benefit of the suggested solution. EMT can decide whether he need to print the invoice, send by SMS or Just save the details in order to send alert to '1990 - Ambulance' App. ( 1990 - Ambulance app having 10000+ downloads from August, 2019).

In addition to that, I would like to do some suggestions on the requirement summery.

Purpose: This should not be limited to aware the patient by leading them to appreciate the service and avoid misusing the service. Instead if you can provide more structured data visualization through different channels such as internet accessible dashboards, social media, printed graphs/ charts in hospitals, clinics, weekly media releases etc., this will results a social impact that drive public ( not only the benefited patient ) to appreciate the service and demotivate the misuse of the service. Most probably these numbers can impact on donations from different segments of people.

Therefore, If you can expand the requirement to that level, the result will be more effective and social driven with relatively less effort. ( Most probably the purpose of item 08 in your requirement list is similar to this).

Invoice format If you can add QR code with the URL, that will be easy for the user. We can make this QR code available in public for donation ( eg: in Hospitals, Airports, Supermarkets etc) also.

@anilherath very valid and useful points, well noted. Lets look at incorporating same as we finalise the requirement spec for the system

[dumindra]

@dakshika @hiranya @shageevan @shriyananda @developeerr @SampathDilhan @jayanath1987 @anilherath @daatlk @erangakapukotuwa @banduwgs

Hi all, whilst we wait for ICTA to put a process to take this forward, I would like to invite you all to a meeting to present you the 1990 Suwaseriya Operation. For you to see what we do, to appreciate it as well as understand the systems we use today.

Suggest following dates and times. We will select the best date for all, please comment on whats best for you.

Monday 17th at 5 pm or Friday 21st at 9.30 am

The meeting will be at suwaseriya headoffice in Rajagiriya. https://goo.gl/maps/u1kBe8CirMyX9rzNA

[banduwgs]

I can make it on both days. Monday, 17th 5PM is preferred.

[dakshika]

@dumindra : Preferred Monday 17th at 5 pm

[sanjiva]

+1 for Monday 17th @ 5pm.

[hiranya]

Available on Monday 17th @ 5pm.

[anilherath]

Preferred Monday 17th.

[shageevan]

Monday 17th @ 5pm sounds good.

[SampathDilhan]

+1 for Monday 17th

[dumindra]

Monday 17th, 5pm confirmed

Location - https://goo.gl/maps/u1kBe8CirMyX9rzNA

[dumindra]

Kind reminder, meeting today at 5 pm

[dakshika]

Hi All, Any update on the next steps.IMO we need to do the following

1. Create a google group for discussions Or Slack channel
2. We need to set up a meeting with developers to identify the exposed APIs, current technology stacks, architecture, etc.

After having this we can move to the next phase of design specs etc.

[hiranya]

Hello Everyone, I created a Google Group for further discussions on this project. Please join here: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/govtechlk-suwaseriya-1990

Here's an invite to ICTA's GovTechLK Slack workspace. We can use the #proj-suwaseriya channel for any real-time discussions. Please note that this slack is a free account, so older messages will disappear. So let's keep any strategic discussion to our Google Group. https://join.slack.com/t/govtechlk/shared_invite/enQtOTY0OTA5MDY1Mzk3LWFiMmI1NGQ0NzUzMjRjMWZiY2M4MzVlZjgzZjJiNjU5NTFhOTdiNDQxMzY0YTM2ZTNlNTkyMjFhZGU0NDhmNzg

[1990Sohan]

Dear All, Can you pls share your contact details only a fe have done upto now. We need to setup a meeting for next week.

[chathudan]

@hiranya is the Slack URL correct?

[hiranya]

@hiranya is the Slack URL correct?

@chathudan Please use this new invite https://join.slack.com/t/govtechlk/shared_invite/zt-gbchp9m8-qONlIhiHqSz4OW4vV9BeYg (valid for 30 days)