NEW DELHI, January 23 2006
IANS
Ten Indian American doctors are to establish an
ambulance service in Mumbai to provide critical care
to accident victims during the "golden hour"
when most lives can be saved.
The Hinduja Hospital will be the nerve centre for
the Rs.140-million ($3 million) project, which has
an annual recurring cost of Rs.40 million.
Seven other hospitals and four medical colleges will
initially be part of the network, which has the blessings
of the Maharashtra government, according to Navin
C. Shah, a Maryland-based urologist.
"The Hinduja Hospital has agreed to provide
eight manned ambulances with all emergency care equipment
and give facilities for training. This will be imparted
by US-based doctors for the next five years,"
Shah told IANS.
"A committee of deans of the medical colleges,
chief executives of major hospital in Mumbai and government
officials will be meeting in a fortnight to formulate
the plan of action for implementing the project,"
he added.
Against two deaths per 10,000 vehicle accidents in
the US, the mortality rate in India is 140 per 10,000
accidents, Shah pointed out.
"We hope to reduce the deaths by 33 percent
and morbidity (disability) by 50 percent by providing
timely help during the golden hour when time is of
great essence," said Shah.
He is hopeful that his meeting with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss
for establishing similar facilities across the country
will bear fruit once the Mumbai experiment starts
showing results.
Both of them have assured him and his US colleagues
all support in their endeavour.
In the case of accident victims, Maharashtra officials
have promised that the attorney general would be approached
to modify rules enabling medical aid to be rendered
immediately without waiting for the police to arrive
and record the victim's statement.
"Our attempt would be to create an Indian model
for critical care in one city so that it can be replicated
in other cities. We will be actively involved in the
project for five years," said Shah.
"Within three months we hope to have the first
phase of the project in operation. In the second phase
more hospitals in Mumbai will be invited to offer
similar services."
There would be an annual audit to monitor the effectiveness
of the programme in which all the participating hospitals
would have separate departments for emergency critical
care with a trained doctor and team on standby at
all times.
