Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

New initiative for emergency medicare

By N. Rahul

HYDERABAD Dec. 27. A new initiative to help cases of emergency medical care by networking various services and hospitals has taken roots in the State.

A number of Government and private functionaries met here recently to plan and execute the project in the name of National Network of Emergency Services with the assistance of the American Association of Emergency Medicine in India. The Health Minister, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, was present.

The project -- Emergency Care Project -- aims at developing a comprehensive system to treat victims of accidents and other emergencies, including heart attacks, right from the `golden hour' to rehabilitation. The State Government will play the role of a facilitator of the network while the private sector will participate in it by extending the services of its hospitals.

The project recognises the first two hours of the patient's trauma as the `golden hour' when basic and advanced life support mechanisms have to be extended to him. Helping the patients by providing transport and first aid, training the paramedical staff to monitor the vitals during transport and creating a communication system for despatch of information about emergencies to the treatment centres are part of the services contemplated in the golden hour. Even the ambulance drivers are proposed to be educated to administer the IV drip and monitor ECG.

The process is to be initiated by a pilot project in Hyderabad, Guntur and Hyderabad-Guntur highway sometime in March, the Director General of Medical and Health Services, K. Anji Reddy, told The Hindu.

He said the implementation of the project will involve community education, stationing ambulances at fixed points and fixing tertiary, secondary and primary hospitals for participation. Prevention of accidents, post-operative care, physiotherapy and rehabilitation of victims will also be focussed.

Dr. Reddy said the participating institutions in the pilot project are Osmania and Gandhi Hospitals in Hyderabad and Government hospitals at Guntur, Sattenapalli, Piduguralla, Miryalguda, Dachepalli, Nalgonda and Chityal. All private hospitals that are already part of the national network in Hyderabad and Guntur and all other hospitals that have the standardised infrastructure and are willing to follow protocol will be invited to participate in the project.

The meeting was attended, among others, by Chaya Ratan, Principal Secretary, Medical and Health, G. Shamsundar, Vice-Chancellor, NTR University of Health Sciences, D.T. Naik, Additional Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, M. Sivananda Reddy, Additional SP, Nalgonda, T. Lakshminarayana, Superintendent, Osmania General Hospital, Fiaz Ahmed, Superintendent, Guntur Hospital, and representatives of various hospitals.

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