With the monsoon having arrived, travel and vacations are indeed enjoyable ones with the splashing waters. The freshness and pleasantness of the atmosphere, cloudy skies, sweet-smelling wet soil and musical splatter of rain-drops is alluring to most people including the seniors. Yet this unique season is popular for its’ own set of pleasures and problems. Since rainy weather is typically characterized by the onset of a variety of diseases, travelling requires a lot of prior planning and adequate precautionary measures.

Often seniors with medical conditions have to travel long distances both for emergency and non-emergency situations. Irrespective of the type of situation, such patients must be provided with scrupulous care during travel. This is because there are greater chances of being delayed or stopped by heavy rains, traffic jams and bad weather. Long Distance Medical Transportation (LDMT) is a good proposition for such seniors undertaking monsoon travel. Irrespective of the patient’s health condition, the transportation providers must adopt sufficient measures and be equipped to handle any emergencies. It is also important that both the medical and driving staff in the patient transport service should be well qualified, trained and meticulous.

There are possibilities of experiencing a lot of unforeseen incidents on the long monsoon travel Lengthy trips also exhaust the human body and in the context of a patient or senior citizen intending to travel, the means of transportation determines the quality of the journey. The care and comfort of the senior are of utmost priority. So several factors as such as the vehicle status, surrounding temperature, route is taken and the road conditions must be considered.

For ensuring a safe journey and addressing healthcare needs it is advisable for seniors to use non-emergency ambulance services or even reliable private ambulance transportation for LDMT.

Factors to be considered while choosing LDMT

• Ensuring sufficient medical assistance on board: Thorough enquiry must be done to ensure that the ambulance is well-equipped with necessary medical support such as paramedical personnel, basic life-support systems and emergency medical devices.
• Having an adequate number of on-board paramedic Staff: Owing to the complexity and longevity of travel, LDMT must ensure that it has extra staff and medical devices for catering to contingencies.
• Making sure that the transport provider has sufficient LDMT experience: This is significant as the patient’s body largely needs to in static position before and after treatment and any rigorous physical movements must be avoided.
• Hiring authentic, valid and verified transportation: Seniors safety and health is crucial. So reliable transportation must be chosen so that it is capable of dispensing experienced support and care–driven assistance.
• Possessing emergency handling and contingency planning capacity: LDMT should offer seamless transit capabilities as crisis prevention is critical for the sustenance of good health in seniors. All on-board medical devices must be completely functional and staff must be ready for handling eventualities.

Safety Travel Tips for Seniors using LDMT in Monsoon

• Carry essential things like cell phone, family contact information, clean drinking water, extra clothes including a jacket and prescribed medications, diet supplements, spectacles, emergency drugs and other necessities.
• Take vaccines for monsoon-related epidemic diseases before travel ling.
• Obtain medical clearance for long distance travel and seek precautionary measures.
• Thoroughly check reviews about transporter and seek appropriate information on their reputation and compliance standards.
• Plan ahead and have scheduled routines to avoid confusion particularly in case of Dementia/Alzheimer’s patients.
• Put safety first and shun routes with lesser travellers.
• Avoid street food and unhygienic water for preventing infections
• Carry a handy travel kit containing first–aid, waterproof bags, insect repellents, mosquito nets, umbrella, raincoats, gumboots/floaters/sandals, hair dryer, torches/emergency lights with backup batteries, location maps/Global-Positioning-System(GPS), indoor board games and books.