THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hoping to bring a paradigm shift in emergency medicine and trauma care in the state, the Health Department had, last April, mulled setting up an Apex Simulation Training Centre for Emergency and Trauma Care.
A year later, the project is in limbo as Tata Trust, one of the stakeholders of the project, has requested ‘some more time’ before signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government. The Rs 12-crore project aims at providing hands-on training and skill development in trauma care to ambulance drivers, doctors and everyone else in between. The centre also envisions collaboration with key international partners having relevant experience in major trauma, patient safety, clinical outcomes monitoring and reporting.
“The centre, as per the proposal, was to be established through a partnership between Tata Trust and Hyderabad-based Care Institutional Health Sciences (CIHS). However, it has to be put on hold as Tata Trust, citing internal issues, requested some more time for signing the MoU,” said a Health Department officer.
“Only after the signing of the tripartite agreement between the state government, Tata Trust and CIHS can the centre come into being,” said the officer.Dr KV Viswanathan, the nodal officer of the proposed centre, said the problems will soon be sorted out and the MoU signing will take place within a month.
“Once the centre is established, we plan to hold hands-on training and skill development sessions for nearly 9,000 staff members, including doctors, nurses, nursing assistants and ambulance drivers, in the next two years. They will also be trained to impart the lessons to others,” said Viswanathan.
He said, “In future, the centre will be opened for medical and nursing students to ensure they are well trained in all kinds of medical emergencies. For that, more than 20,000 emergency situations will be artificially created.”
The centre will have mannequins and will also be equipped with simulation centre having modern facilities like virtual reality and artificial intelligence. As per the Health Department, the video-assisted feedback system in surgical interventions will ensure right knowledge is imparted to trainees.
The centre is part of the comprehensive trauma care programme that includes a GPS-enabled ambulance network and accident insurance scheme.