BENGALURU: Developed countries have robust emergency care and disaster management concepts. India should also have a robust disaster management system headed by emergency physicians to handle situations such as the recent bomb blast in a cafe in Bengaluru, according to Dr Ramesh GH, an emergency physician at a medical college in the city.
Dr Ramesh, who heads the emergency and critical care unit, is a subject expert in emergency medicine, trained to manage acute emergency and critically ill patients and certified for disaster management.
He said, “Lung injuries (pulmonary barotrauma), brain injury, ocular injuries, eardrum perforation, abdominal injuries, vascular injury and external injuries (soft tissues or bone fractures) happen during bomb blasts. In such situations, emergency physicians can save lives by performing critical procedures at the spot or at hospital along with their paramedical, nursing and supporting staff.”
Pre-hospital care teams and ambulance services are the first responders, followed by police and fire services personnel, he said.
Disaster preparedness and planning, hospital community coordination, training and disaster drills, hospital emergency operations plan, establishing emergency operations centre, communication systems, supplies and support areas, decontamination, triage and treatment are the key concepts and points for preparedness, Dr Ramesh said.
“We don’t have these concepts. Though trauma centres have been set up in a few districts, they have no emergency specialist doctors. Most of them are managed by non-subject experts,” he said. “We have no proper medical infrastructure to handle natural calamities, fire accidents, bomb blasts, mass trauma and biowars,” he said.
Dr Ramesh said that he has apprised Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil of the importance of having a robust emergency disaster management system in the state.