Cops plan to set up trauma centres across highways to save patients

They want at least 25 centres so that accident victims can receive medical treatment within golden hour

In a first of its kind move, the Highway Traffic police plans to rope in health and state transport departments to set up trauma care centres near all accident prone zones across the state. The police have identified the areas where 30 percent of the fatal accident takes place and have asked all its units across the state to conduct a study where exactly trauma centres are required.

The police want at least 25 trauma care centres near the highways so that accident victims can receive medical treatment within golden hour which can increase survival chances by 60 to 70 percent. Last year, 25,456 accidents were reported in the state of which 10,646 were fatal accidents and 11,452 persons were killed in these accidents, reveal statistics. There are 98 national highways and 378 state highways which are currently being manned by 3,000 police personnel from the highway police.

"Whenever an accident takes place, the most important thing that comes into play is the Golden Hour. It is the most precious hour in which the injured has to be administered medical treatment. Currently, it takes anywhere around 90 minutes to two hours to rush an injured to a medical care centre. We feel that if there are trauma centres near the accident prone zones near highways across the state, then the injured person can be given immediate medical attention at these centres before shifting the injured to a hospital for further treatment. This will result in chances of survival for the injured person to anywhere between 60 to 70 percent," said additional director general of police, state highway traffic, Dr BK Upadhyay.

He added, "As of now, we do not have any trauma centers at the highways across the state and hence I have asked all our highway police units across the state to conduct a study and send us a report as to where they require trauma centres and how many centres are required to be set up. Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune Rural, Solapur, Nagpur rural, Aurangabad and Jalgaon are high prone accident zones.”

“Thirty percent of the fatal accidents in the state highways occur at these places. Once we get a strong and accurate report from our units, we would send a proposal to the state home department, which would then be sent to the health department. We feel that at least 25 to 30 trauma centres are required across the state highways. Road Safety Fund which is under Transport Department of state department can be utilised for this project and health department can create infrastructure," he added.