Centre to set up 250 trauma centres across the country

The central government has proposed to build 250 trauma care centres in the country in the next five years, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Friday.

'The central government has proposed to set up 250 trauma centres all over the country in the next five years to help accident victims,' said Hooda at the fifth annual conference of Indian Society for Trauma and Acute Care (ISTAC) here.

The Haryana chief minister warned that accidents on Indian roads were rising at an alarming rate of three percent annually and ever year nearly 1.3 million people in the country die in road accidents. 'It is a must to wear helmet while riding a motorcycle. Road accident is the leading cause of death among young people aged between15 to 29,' Hooda said.

'By ensuring that motorcyclists wear helmets while riding, fatal injuries can be effectively reduced by 30 to 40 percent. Nearly 90 percent of accident victims in India suffer head injuries,' said M.C Misra, chief of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences trauma centre, Delhi.

He also admitted the availability of trained human resources was a major challenge for access to quality trauma care services in the country. 'Trauma care is very fragmented and varies from state to state,' Misra said, stressing that 'we need trained manpower at all levels for a responsive trauma care system in the country'.

'Sometimes patients reach us as late as after 14 hours of fatal injuries,' Mishra said, adding that lack of adequate trauma care services was one of the leading causes of accidental deaths in rural India.

Source: IANS