KURNOOL: The Trauma Care Centre, which is under construction in the General Hospital here, is facing staff shortage.

An amount of Rs 1.5 crores was sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Surface Transport with the idea of providing the best care to road accident victims on the National Highways. The General Hospital was sanctioned the centre on the condition that the hospital should maintain the unit and post the staff.

The building was almost nearing completion and an order was placed for equipment too, which is likely to be delivered in a few weeks. But the hospital sources said they were hard pressed for deploying the sufficient number of personnel to man the centre round-the-clock.

The Trauma Care Centre needs experienced hands from multi-disciplines like orthopaedic, neuro-surgery, general surgery, cardiothoracic surgeons and plastic surgeons.

The senior doctors who planned the centre said the first one hour after the accident was the crucial period for the survival of the victim. In fact, the treatment should start right at the accident site. An ambulance was also sourced under the programme.

But the staff problem is worrying the hospital sources as the mainline departments themselves were facing staff shortage and they might not be able to spare extra staff for the trauma centre.

According to hospital sources, over 20 accident cases were admitted to the hospital every day. The casualty ward in the present set up was unable to handle the rush now as the accident cases were on the rise in the past few years.

The neuro-surgery ward which admitted only head injury cases was handling around five cases a day.

About two-thirds of the cases were admitted for observation while the remaining one-third cases required medical intervention.

The infrastructure improvement alone might not be much useful without experienced hands to treat the accident victims.

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