The Hindu Business Line : Trauma care centres on highways mulled

DID you know that a network of trauma care centres could reduce mortality rate in accident-related cases by 400 per cent? Realising this, the Andhra Pradesh Government would be shortly launching a pilot project to test the AP Emergency Network along the Hyderabad-Guntur highway.

The State Government awaits the nod for Ministry of Communications for a dedicated toll-free number. The number would act as a lifeline for the trauma care services.

A number of private hospitals is joining the network, which envisages establishing emergency centres at all towns such as Chotuppal, Nalgonda and Dachepalli along the highway, a Health Ministry official told Business Line.

"All these centres will be supported by ambulances to retrieve the patients to the emergency centres and, if need be, to shift them to larger hospitals," he said.

"We wrote to the Ministry of Communications asking them to allot us 1100 or 1122. They haven't got back to us. Everything else is ready. The moment we get the number, we will launch the service," the official said.

After getting the feedback from the pilot project, the Government would expand the emergency network to all the highways in the State.

Joining Government's initiative, Global Hospitals, a multi-specialty hospital, would be opening a well-equipped trauma care centre on Wednesday. "We are going to adopt a stretch of 100 kilometres on the Hyderabad-Mumbai National Highway under the proposed AP Emergency Network," Dr Ravindranath, Managing Director of Global Hospitals, said.

"The dedicated Institute for Neurosciences, Trauma and Orthopaedics will provide cost-effective and high quality care round the clock," he told newsmen here.

As part of joining the network, the hospital is planning to have a network of ambulances and paramedical professionals to attend to the accident victims.

"We gave our in-principle nod to join the network, details of which are being worked out," he said.

The hospital has roped in a team of doctors, which includes Dr M Chandrashekar, a consultant neurosurgeon, Dr Vemula Sreekanth, a neurophysician, and Dr Zaffer Shah Nawaz, an epileptologist.

Terming trauma as a `neglected disease' that a society could ill-afford to ignore for long, Dr Chandra Bhushan, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said a whopping 85 per cent of accidents victims were brought to hospitals without getting first aid.

"The number of deaths due to injuries among people under 35 far exceeds the combined toll of cardiac and cancer-related deaths," he said.

More Stories on : Health | Andhra Pradesh | Accidents | Roadways

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