CHICAGO: Efforts by a group of physicians led by Dr Navin Shah, a founding member and a former president of AAPI (American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) to establish facilities for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Trauma Centers (TC) in India seem to be bearing fruit.
Dr Shah is leading a delegation of US physicians to Mumbai at the invitation from the Maharashtra government to attend a seminar on EMS being organized in Mumbai in middle June at JJ Hospital in Byculla, a Mumbai suburb. In a talk to this paper, Dr Navin said that the delegation will comprise three US Trauma Surgeons who will conduct a two day ‘Trauma Care- A US Experience’ seminar in Mumbai, June 17, 18 and follow up with two days of hospital visits, and interactions with the officials and trauma surgeons for infrastructure, CME, research and other related subjects.
The delegation includes the chief surgeon of one of the largest Trauma Centers in the US, R.A. Crowley Shock Trauma Center (University of Maryland at Baltimore) and Dr T.M. Scalea , Dr Amy N. Hildreth, Trauma surgeon, Wake Forest School of Medicine and Dr. Manjari Joshi, Professor of Medicine (infectious diseases) at University of Maryland Medical School. Dr. Scalea and Dr. Hildreth have generously offered two fully paid scholarships for Massachusetts trauma surgeons to visit the U.S. at their center for one week to observe and get acquainted with the U.S. service model and services.
Unlike the US, India does not have an organized and centralized Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Trauma Centers (TC) to provide prompt and proper transport and the medical care to the emergency patient. Annually 365,000 deaths in India are due to accidents. With every death there are three serious injuries thus amounting to a million injured patients. Annually Mumbai records 8,600 accident deaths (including 4,000 in railway accidents), 12,600 deaths due to heart attacks, 6,200 infant deaths and some 365,000 serious emergency patients.
Dr Shah said, “Over the years, we have assembled expertise and facilities of 24 hospitals and ambulance services to provide a U.S. style organized service round the clock in Mumbai. In principle, all involved parties have agreed to participate and initiate the program.
“This year (2013) the government of Maharashtra has issued a tender to acquire 920 ambulances (including for Mumbai) for the state. For this project I also had meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Health Minister G.N. Azad and top ranking federal health officials. I have stressed the need for Mumbai project and expressed that Mumbai/Maharashtra project will be a national model for other metros of India to replicate. This project will serve all, rich and poor,” he concluded.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
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