Chennai: Health minister C. Vijayabaskar inaugurated 108 Critical Care Emergency Centre in Mamallapuram on Friday. The five bed emergency care centre with minor procedure table is equipped with advanced equipment and trained medical staff to provide medical intervention to trauma and accident victims.
Eleven more critical care emergency centres will be established in various districts including Kanchipuram, Dindigul, Villupuram, Vellore, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tirupur, Namakkal, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli.
The establishment of an emergency care centre was started as a pilot project in August 2013 in Tambaram, aiming at reducing the response time to trauma care patients.
“Emergency Care Centres act as intermediaries to stabilise a trauma care patients in critical condition before they can be admitted in a hospital. The state currently has three completely operational critical care centres in Tambaram, Injambakkam and Padiyanallur,” said Uma Maheswari, director, Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project.
“The emergency care centres will be established in the city and outskirts in a phased manner and the accident hotspots are being identified currently. The critical care centre in Sriperumbadur is almost complete and will be operational soon,” she added.
So far, a total of 15,226 accident victims have received trauma care at the Tambaram centre, while 10,428 and 2,484 patients were given treatment at Padiyanallur and Injambakkam centre respectively. The emergency care response time for the accident victims has reduced and around 80 percent of more lives could be saved with the help of emergency care centres, said the officials.
Health minister announced that Tamil Nadu Accident and Critical Care Initiative will be launched in the state at a cost of Rs. 57 crore to provide pre-hospital care, hospital care and hospital rehabilitation by the medicos trained in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS).
Emergency care centres will also be set up at a cost of Rs. 24 crore in Ponneri and Nazarathpettai.
