THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Health minister K.K. Shylaja said new trauma care centre with modern state of the art facilities on the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will be functional at the Thiruvananthapruam Medical College within six months. The minister disclosed this after examining the progress of work at the new Centre in the presence of AIIMS emergency medicine professor Dr Sanjeev Boi and associated professor Dr Tej Prakash Sinha on Tuesday. The new trauma care centre is coming near the main entrance of the medical college hospital along the road. The work on the second phase is the final stages.
Life 1 Trauma Care Centre along with emergency care department would be housed in the double storey building. Lift and ramp would connect the two floors. All latest diagnostic facilities including X ray, ultra sound scan, CT Scan, MRI scan along with other diagnostic services will be available under one roof. The ground floor will have reception, triage, different emergency departments, surgical ICU, medical ICU, operation theatres, pre operative and post operative rooms and observation room with 80 beds. In place of existing three operation theatres, the new trauma care centre will have eight operation theatres. Various specialities including surgery, neurosurgery, orthopaedics, septic operation theatre, surgery procedure room, ortho procedure room will be part of the new block.
The road adjacent to the existing casualty will be utilised as one way for vehicles coming to the trauma centre. Adequate parking place is being earmarked for ambulances and other emergency rescue vehicles. More than 1,000 patients visit medical college casualty daily. With the commissioning of the new trauma centre, all state of the art life saving facilities will be available at the MCH. “We are in the process of enhancing the facilities in trauma care centres attached to various hospitals along with ambulances with life saving facilities. The project is likely to be completed within two years,” she said. The facilities were being upgraded in view of the rising number of road accidents in the state, the minister said.
She had visited AIIMS recently along with a group of doctors to study the facilities there. Subsequently a delegation of AIIMS came to MCH, examined the facilities and discussed the requirements at this Centre. A section of doctors and nursing staff also underwent training in latest techniques in trauma care. During her visit the health minister was also accompanied by social security mission executive director and trauma care nodal officer Dr Mohammad Asheel, medical college principal Dr Thomas Mathew, superintendent M.S. Sharmad and deputy superintendents Dr Joy John and Dr Santosh Kumar.
27 government hospitals to provide trauma care
The state government is planning to set up trauma care units in 27 select government hospitals across Kerala to provide expert emergency care to accident victims. These are besides the trauma care projects that are currently being implemented in Ernakulam Gene-ral Hospital, Kannur District Hospital, and Alappuzha Medical College under the Centre’s ‘Assistance for Development of trauma Care Facilities in Gover-nment Hospitals located on National Highways’.
“We have also plans to establish trauma care systems in Thiruvan-anthapuram, Kottayam and Thrissur medical colleges,” health minister K.K. Shylaja said in reply to a question in the Assembly on Tuesday. Under the project, 60 per cent will be met by the Centre and the rest by state.
“The approval to include Alappuzha Medical College in the Level-II Trauma Care Project was received from the Centre,” she said. The Centre has also issued an order granting Rs 3.66 crore as first instalment of its share. The total project cost is Rs 10.27 crore. The approval to inc-lude Kozhikode Medical College in Level-I Trauma Care projects has also been secured. “As the first instalment of the Centre’s share, the state has received Rs 5.04 crore,” she said. The state also requested the Centre to include Thrissur Medical College, too, within the Centre’s trauma care projects. “A team from the Centre had visited the medical college on June 17 this year,” Ms Shylaja said. A project proposal has already been submitted to the Centre.
The trauma care project involves equipping government hospitals with basic infrastructure and state-of-the-art medical equipments necessary to provide immediate medical care to trauma care victims. “Steps have also been taken to ensure the availability of specialist doctors in these hospitals,” the minister said. Apart from this, first aid and emergency treatment will be provided in hospitals, including private, along national and state highways with 24X7 casualty service.
