Telangana: Golden hour' gets wasted in traffic

Hyderabad: Maximum accidents are reported in Telangana on NH7.  The highway that starts from Adilabad and goes to Mahabubnagar crosses Nizamabad, Medak, Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts. The highest number of accidents has been recorded in Nizamabad district with the “black spot” recording 663 cases in 2014-15.

The data has been tabulated and given to the state government but little has been done about it.

Consultant emergency physician Dr Lakshmikanth Galla said, “There are no emergency centres on the highway, patients have to be rushed to hospitals in the cities. A lot of time is wasted as there is too much traffic on the city outskirts and also while maneuvering within city limits".

"There is a strong need to set up equipped trauma centres with two ambulances and paramedics for every 100 kilometres on highways, which will help stabilise patients. After that they can be shifted to well-equipped centres in the city”, Galla added.

According to data collected by GVK EMRI, maximum accidents take place between 10 pm and midnight. The mean time for an ambulance to reach the accident spot is 20 minutes in rural areas and 15 minutes in urban areas depending on the traffic in urban areas, said Mr B.P. Rao, CEO of GVK EMRI.

Presently, ambulances have to travel between 5 and 20 km to reach hospitals in the city, a valuable 20 to 40 minutes for a trauma patient.

A senior ambulance driver on condition of anonymity said, “We are not stationed in very remote areas. At times, ambulance drivers have problems locating the spot when people do not give the right address.”

Data tabulated by EMRI shows that it took less than 20 minutes to reach the spot in 65 per cent of the cases in urban areas and 42 per cent of cases in rural areas. It took more than 30 minutes in 4 per cent cases in urban areas and 19 per cent of cases in rural areas.