Chennai, July 17, 2019: As part of its attempt to bring down fatalities due to road accidents, the Tamil Nadu government plans to set up multidisciplinary critical care units in government hospitals across the southern Indian state.
This was announced by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in the assembly on July 17.
The state would upgrade infrastructure in Government Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in Chennai at a cost of 400 million rupees, the chief minister said. The state would offer rehabilitation care at the upgraded rehab center to ensure that people discharged after trauma lead a near normal life.
The 108 ambulances bring trauma patients to government hospitals. A special nurse under the Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative receives the patient from the ambulance with a team of doctors including an orthopedician and a neurologist besides postgraduate students and resident doctors.
Doctors then quickly assess patients at the triage rooms categorize them as red (life-threatening injuries), orange (injuries) or green (doesn’t need emergency care). Most ‘green’ patients are discharged after a minor treatment, ‘orange’ patients get specialty care and beds in the unit were open for the sickest patients, who were given the red tag.
“But once the patients are stabilized, they don’t be in the emergency room. There will be further intensive monitoring by experts,” said a senior official.
The MD-ICUs will have specialists from multiple departments such as neurology, pulmonology, nephrology, cardiology, anesthesiology and intensivists who will be able to manage them medically or care for them after an emergency surgery.
Once patients recover, they will be sent to the concerned specialty wards for further management.
The number of deaths due to accidents had come down from over 14,000 to around 12,000 in 2018, health minister C VIjaya Baskar said in the assembly on July 16. The percentage of mortality has also come down by more than 8% due to simple protocol changes in the emergency wards.
“But once the patients leave the hospital, the care almost stops. They don’t get required rehabilitation, including physiotherapy,” said a senior health official. An upgraded Government Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine will address this issue.
Source: The Times of India