THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major move to support specialised treatment to road-accident victims, the government is coming up with an ambitious Trauma Care Project, which will ensure the injured get treatment during the golden hour. The government will bear the treatment expenses of road accident victims for the first 48 hours including at private hospitals.The proposals being considered under the project include forbidding the hospitals from claiming any amount from the relatives of a victim for the first 48 hours of treatment, which will be paid by the government.
The same amount will be claimed from the respective insurance companies later. A detailed plan will be chalked out after holding talks with the insurance companies.In a meeting held here, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asked the officials to end the practice of denying treatment to any of the accident victims. The trend of providing it only to the rich should be ended. In case of the victims being taken to the private hospitals, expenses for the first phase of treatment should be spent from the Road Safety Fund.
A trauma care system will be set up at the Government Medical Colleges, district and taluk hospitals and major private medical centres. Special ambulance service, having modern facilities, will be arranged to bring the accident victims to the nearby hospitals without any delay. Application will be invited from private agencies in this regard. There will be a new software to select the ambulances and private hospitals. A centralised call center will control the activities with the support of the software.
The initiative is being introduced in the backdrop of the tragic death of Murugan, a Tamil Nadu native who succumbed to injuries following a road accident after many hospitals allegedly refused to admit him. Fund for implementing the project will be mobilised from the Kerala Road Safety Fund and Social Security Fund of the Kerala State Transport Project.
A practical framework for the project would be prepared jointly by Secretaries of Department of Health, Home, Finance, Transport and PWD.Besides Health Minister K K Shylaja, Health Additional Chief Secretary Rajiv Sadanandan, Additional Chief Secretary Home Subrata Boswas, PWD Principal Secretary G Kamalvardhana Rao, Transport Secretary KR Jyothilal and Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary (Coordination) V S Senthil attended the meeting.
HC nullifies provision
Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday nullified a section in the Act related to the admission and fees of self-financing medical colleges which authorises the state government to enter into an agreement with one or more medical educational institutions regarding fee, seat sharing or any other matter.