The Centre will soon come out with a national programme on injury control to provide trauma healthcare services to lakhs of road accident victims, a move which comes after latest data showed that 52 people die every hour in India due to road accidents.
Noting that road traffic injuries are among the three leading causes of death of people between 5 and 44 years of age, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said that such injuries are predicted to become the fifth leading cause of death in the world, resulting in an estimated 24 lakh deaths each year unless immediate steps are taken.
"The government is ready and intends to go forward for a national injury control programme. We need the inputs of experts on this," he told the third World Trauma Congress, 2016 here.
He said it is generally the "productive age or the younger generation" which is involved in accidents because of which there is a economic burden attached to it. As much as 1.5 per cent of the GDP worldwide gets affected because of this trauma. In India it is 3 per cent of the GDP.
This is because we are not able to give solutions at the level in which trauma is taking place and there is huge gap, the Minister said.
"We want to initiate national injury control programme. It will be a holistic view and this programme will focus on how all types of trauma can be addressed.
"How to develop human resource, fulfilling of gaps, providing financial help to address trauma, all these issues will be worked out through a multi-dimensional approach," Nadda said.
An official Health Ministry statement quoting latest statistics said that in India 52 people died every hour in various accidents in 2014 and the major causes of accidental deaths are 'traffic accident, drowning, poisoning and accidental fire'.
It also said that India has the highest road crash mortality in the world.
Nadda said that every year nearly 16 lakh people die in road mishaps with more than 3,000 such deaths daily worldwide.
He said that about 2 to 5 crore more people sustain non-fatal injuries from a collision and these injuries are an important cause of disability worldwide while ninety per cent of road traffic deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, which claim less than half the world's registered vehicle fleet.
He also rued that in India there is non-availability of trauma systems and absence of pre-hospital care.
Nadda said the present in-hospital trauma care
infrastructure cannot cater to the needs of 'multiply injured patients' while Emergency Medical Services Legislation also needs to be addressed and adapted uniformly. He said that rehabilitation facilities were practically "non existent".
He hoped that the Trauma Congress will provide an opportunity to assess the lead taken so far and the road ahead.
He said that to meet the challenge of trauma care and to better meet the needs of trauma patients, there is a need to advance not only clinical practice and medical technology, but also the organisation of our healthcare system and resources.
Referring to a recent accident in which a man died after being hit by a vehicle in Delhi as none of the passersby came to his rescue, Nadda said that there is a need to develop the culture of being a good samaritan.
Noting that finance is not a problem and the government is ready to spend on healthcare, he said 11 new AIIMS are being set up with a cost of more than Rs 1,000 crore. Right input should be given at the right time.
Asserting that working in silos has become a habit, Nadda said there is a need for inter-departmental cooperation and understanding as far as policy on trauma care is concerned.
Health Secretary C K Mishra said that the 3rd World Congress was a call for action to all stakeholders to end all deaths due to trauma.
"Not only their effective treatment, but it is important to think about ways and means to rehabilitate the patients so that they continue to add to the productivity of their own communities and the nation as a whole.
"As policymakers it is time to think of building capacity of individuals also that that injury and trauma can be prevented through enhanced levels of awareness and better capacity to deal with them," he said.
The Congress is being organised by the J P N Apex Trauma Centre of AIIMS in New Delhi and co-hosted by the Indian Society for Trauma Acute Care (ISTAC) and the World Coalition for Trauma Care (WCTC).
It aims at exchanging ideas, experiences and lessons learned about the role of internationally accepted systems and protocols in the field of trauma care, mass causality incidents and disasters.
