Having succeeded on highways, Lifeline Foundation developed a similar module for Vadodara - EMS Vadodara, an attempt at creating for the first time in India, pre-hospital care during transportation of patients as a Private-Public-NGO Partnership with 9 hospitals, 43 ambulances, city police and fire department, Collectorate and Commissionarate as partners. The 24 hour helpline ensures that the nearest ambulance reaches the patient to the nearest benchmarked hospital.
Pre-hospital care is virtually nonexistent in non-metros; inefficient pre-hospital care results in high mortality rate and untoward outcome. 'Golden Hour Concept' is still in its infancy. Lifeline aimed to correct this anomaly through creation of EMS Vadodara as a pilot project, expertise gained would be used to be replicated in other cities of Gujarat.
EMS Vadodara provides various levels of care to trauma and other emergency patients. It is managed by a representative body of 9 members - EMS Council of Vadodara.
Standard Operations Procedures (SOPs) have been laid down and adhered to for proper working of Emergency Care Network by Level I & II hospitals and the control room.
Components of EMS Vadodara
This system consists of the following modules:
1.
Multiple Level Emergency Care Centres
Level I centres are apex level multi-disciplinary hospitals identified by the EMS COUNCIL, equipped to handle serious patients of all disciplines. These are: SSGH, Jamnabai (Civil) Hospital,
Bhailal Amin General Hospital (BAGH), Sterling Unity Hospital, Narhari Hospital & Yogini Vasanti Devi Hospital
Level II centres are hospitals with 40 or more beds but less than 100 are also part of the network. Three hospitals currently figure as Level II centres: Shubhechha Multispecialty Hospital, Sangam Hospital & Premdas Jalaram Hospital.
All these centres have strengthened their Emergency Departments as per agreed protocol to offer prompt life saving treatment as soon as the patient reaches any of these centres.
2.
Centralized Ambulance service
The components of the central ambulance service are:
Central Dispatch and Control Centre:
The central control centre is located at Lifeline Foundation office/control room existing for the Highway Rescue Project. The centre is equipped with two way communication - wireless - between the ambulances and the centres. Distress calls are thrown on the wireless system for the nearest hospital based ambulance to respond. The dispatcher at the control room with the aid of a digital map of Vadodara, helps the ambulance in the field to locate the distress caller.
In cases of disasters, the dispatcher is to inform the fire brigade and police and coordinate the activities of the ambulances at the disaster site and the hospitals.
Ambulances on the Road:
Adequately equipped and manned ambulances will be deployed at various sites of the city and the suburbs in such a way that each ambulance covers a radius of a circle, which is not more than 10 minutes from the centre where the ambulance is located.
3.
Trained personnel
Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and drivers man each ambulance. Hospitals have trained their drivers and are getting to deploy EMTs in the ambulances. These personnel are being trained by Lifeline Foundation with outsourced technical expertise.
4.
Training / Awareness of Community
Motivated community and youth leaders will be educated to recognise an emergency, call for help and provide immediate treatment on the scene until help arrives.
5.
Injury Surveillance / Information system
class="regtext"It is widely known that emergencies, accidents and injuries are not reported due to wide array of reasons. A minimal basic documentation will produce the surveillance data needed to define public health impact of emergencies and injuries in the community. Analysis of this data can help system planners identify priority problems and preventive countermeasures.
FINAL AIM OF EMS VADODARA:
Deploy at least 5 equipped ambulances in Vadodara.
Identify and designate Level III Emergency Care centres.
Integrate the System with the Disaster Management Plan of Vadodara.
