Absence of a coordinated trauma services by various related agencies including concerned ministries is resulting in avoidable deaths and long term disabilities in about 4.67 lakh road accidents in the country each year .There is a strong need for strengthening trauma care system in the country to avoid these tragedies.
“During the year 2018 about 1.51 lakh persons died in the country due to road accidents, which were mostly preventable as compared in United States in about 20 lakh accident take place with only 4000 road accident due to committed taruma servioces . In India better coordinated preventive measures are needed including enhanced trauma services, and imrpovement in road and vehicle engineering ” said Mr I.K.Pandey ,Director General ,Road Development and Special secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and highways (MoRTH) while inaugurating a day long onference on ‘Trauma care a National Mission’ jointly organised by The International Road Federation along with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, FICCI and World Health Organisation(WHO) here today a part of the ongoing Road Safety
” Ministry of Road transport as part of improving road engineering has identified more than 4000 black spots on national highways and is going all out to retify them in pahsed measure taking all safety measures . The ministry will also be conduction road safey audits to further improve road engineering ” said Mr Pandey.
“MoRTH as part of its effort to imrpove trauma service on National Highways has provided an ambulance, first aid service an one crane on every toll plazas .Provisions of this is also in the concecessionaire agreement to provide these provisions but National Highways are only about Two per cent of the total road netwrok in the country” he added .
“It is important to infuse knowledge of road safety and first aid among public and also in road side facilities such as dhabas and among truck drivers, who are most often the first to reach accident sites. The Government on its part provides free hospital care to accident victims but more needs to be done ,” said Dr Rajiv Garg , Director General Health Services , Ministry of Health and FAmily Welfare while speaking at the conference .
Ms Payden , Deputy Head of WHO country office speaking oin the occassion said “It is seen that road accidents is the number one cause of death among children and youngsters in the age group of 5 to 29 in India . Most of these deaths are avoidable with preventable measures including better trauma services , giving way to ambulances and availability of ambulances during golden hour . About 30 per cent road accident victims die after being discharged from hospitals, this needs to be taken care by rehabilitating them ”
“The National Health Authority (NHA) to extend the government’s mega health insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), popularly known as the Ayushman Bharat to cover the road accident victims in the country. Annually, about 1.51 lakh people get killed in road crashes in the country and more than 470 lakh people get injured . India accounts for more than 11 per cent of the global road accident fatalities. India is also a signatory to the United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety which aims to reduce road fatalities by 50% by the year 2020. “ said Mr K K Kapila, president Emeritus , International Road Federation (IRF) while spaking on the occasion.
“The increase in road accidents comes amid growing concerns that significant proportions of victims of road accidents in the country do not receive timely and appropriate medical care and do not even have ambulances for transport to hospitals. Given the shortages of ambulances, trained staff, infrastructure, systems and processes for providing emergency response services within the golden hour, the provision of first aid and trauma care to accident victims is often unduly delayed. The results of these delays reflect in higher traffic accident fatality rates, especially in low-income countries. These fatality rates can be reduced if appropriate and prompt first aid and trauma care is provided at the accident site itself” said Mr Kapila,
“The road accident victims if given cover under the Prime Minister’s health scheme – Ayushman Bharat will help in reduction of road accident deaths in a big way as well help the injured. he added
Some of the eminent experts attending the conference will included Dr. (Prof.) Amit Gupta, Professor of Surgery, AIIMS-JPN Trauma Centre Dr. Maneesh Singhal, Professor & HOD, Dept. of Burns, Plastic & Mailofacial Surgery, AIIMS Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Head Neurosurgery, Apollo Hospital ,Mr. Rahul Bharti, Sr. VP, Corp. Comm, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Dr. Arpit Jain, DCP, Faridabad. A film on Traumacare will also be released during the meet.
