India
Highway Trauma Care Model Proposed in India
By Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India
Oct 7, 2005, 00:05

The Government of India is taking into consideration increasing number of highway accidents and human toll, due to lack of emergency facilities in the proximity, has prepared a four level trauma care project to tackle the problem. The Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr.Anbumani Ramadoss, who has been having meetings with the concerned officials on the issue, said that improvement of highways and widening them, will alone be not enough, as they may contribute towards reduction in accidents, but still trauma care needs to be made within the quicker reach of the injured in the accidents.

Dr.Ramadoss, who was given a presentation on the subject here yesterday, said that trauma care facilities would be extended and upgraded through a four level project. He said, the approach envisages upgrading and strengthening the existing hospitals along the Golden Quadrilateral and North-South-East-West corridors. Level I will have major super specialties associated with trauma care and provide leadership in clinical management, research, documentation and training. It will be situated in major cities at a distance of 700 to 800 kms. apart. Each institution will be extended financial support of Rs.10 crore, to begin with, the Minister said.

Level II provides definitive care for severe trauma patients and would have in-house emergency physicians, surgeons, and orthopaedicians, anesthesia specialists and on-call facilities for neuro-surgeons or trained general doctors in neuro surgery. The existing medical college hospitals or hospitals with a strength of 300 to 500 beds will be chosen for Level II trauma care. This or Level III trauma care centre will be available at a distance of every 100 kms and it is proposed to extend a financial support of Rs.5 crore, to upgrade their existing infrastructure.

Level III will strive to provide initial evaluation and stabilization to trauma patients and comprehensive medical and surgical in-patient services. The district/tehsil hospitals with bed- capacity upto 200 will be selected for this level and a financial support of Rs. 3 crore would be extended to upgrade their existing infrastructure.

Level IV will have an equipped ambulance to provide first-aid/basic life-support to the patient during transit to the nearest identified trauma care centre. The ambulances will be stationed at a distance of 50 kms apart (between Level I,II & III trauma centres), to provide round the clock service. 400 ambulances each costing Rs.20 lakh, will be deployed for this.

The integrated trauma care system will have a state-of-the-art communication networking with contact points on the highways and the designated trauma centres will have an ambulance and an exclusive toll free number. In addition, a dedicated one-way telephone booth will also be put in place at a distance of every 5 kms, the Minister said.

India just has one per cent of total vehicles in the world but accounts for 6 per cent of total road accidents. The accident rate of 35 per thousand vehicles in India, is the highest in the world. Accidental trauma is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in India. 80,000 persons die every year and 1.2 million seriously injured. WHO has projected that by 2020 road accidents will be a major killer in India accounting for 5,46,000 deaths and 1,53,14,000 disability adjusted life years lost.

All rights reserved by www.rxpgnews.com