Rising road accidents in Odisha strike a need for advanced trauma centers, ambulances

Over the last one year, an advanced trauma center was commenced in AMRI Hospitals, Bhubaneswar. The government has launched 92 ambulances under the ‘108’ umbrella

Even as 25 states and Union Territories across the country saw a drop in road accidents since the first half of 2017, Odisha was among states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Assam, which witnessed an increase of 2 to 8 percent in road accident fatalities during the period.

In 2018, 5,315 people were killed in road accidents across Odisha. Around 11,794 people were injured in 11,262 accidents in the state. The year 2018 witnessed a 10.96 per cent rise in fatality rate, on which the Supreme Court had expressed its displeasure. Earlier in 2017, the apex Court had already asked the state government to control road accident fatalities from 2016 to 2017, which shot up by 7.33%.

Road accidents often lead to serious and multiple injuries with a strong possibility of death or disability. Any injury sustained on the head, skull, chest or abdomen during road accidents are life threatening and needs expertise to handle such critical issues.

The “Status of Emergency and Trauma Care Services in India” report stated that globally there has been a almost 30 percent decline in mortality rate after trauma centers were set up. Whiles setting up trauma care centers is both a public health challenge and an opportunity in Odisha, setting up advanced trauma care centers will potentially be able to address the rising level of fatality in the state.

Amongst private hospitals in the state, AMRI Hospitals, best hospital in Kolkata  launched an advanced trauma center to provide a systematic, targeted approach to treat trauma patients. The first-of-its-kind Advanced Trauma Centre in Odisha also has a direct hotline number (0674-6666666) for round-the-clock functioning of the hospital’s Emergency department.

“Within a month of setting up this dedicated Trauma Center, we have been able to address trauma issues better by providing comprehensive support in critical conditions,” a spokesperson from AMRI Hospitals said.

Better ambulances can reduce deaths 

While Odisha is battling increasing number of road accident deaths through better road safety awareness, and joining hands with NGOs to formulate helplines, a key infrastructural need is the development of advanced ambulances with paramedics to tackle life threatening accidents.

In a bid to improve the performance of Emergency Ambulance Service in the state, the Government of Odisha, has made 92 ambulances available at various community health centres (CHCs) and primary health centres (PHCs) in the districts of Sundargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Sambalpur and Sonepur under the 108 fleet.

AMRI Hospitals, which commenced its Trauma Center in February, introduced Advanced Life Support Ambulance Service with “qualified and trained paramedics and state-of-the art equipment.” Further, bike ambulances have also been launched by the hospital to enable the initiation of pre-hospital resuscitation within a very short period of time.