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| LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 18
| Issue : 4 | Page : 343 |
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The need for level I trauma centers in India
Krema Sabateena Pushpa
Government Upgraded Primary Health Centre, Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, India
| Date of Submission | 27-Feb-2020 |
| Date of Decision | 28-Feb-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 26-Mar-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 19-Oct-2020 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Krema Sabateena Pushpa
Government Upgraded Primary Health Centre, Komaralingam, Tiruppur - 642 126, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/cmi.cmi_21_20
How to cite this article:
Pushpa KS. The need for level I trauma centers in India. Curr Med Issues 2020;18:343 |
Every year, about 5 million people die from injuries across the world. In India alone, it is estimated that nearly one million people die, and around 20 million are hospitalized each year due to injuries.[1] The burden of disease due to trauma is increasing at a disturbing rate. This not only increases the morbidity and mortality rate but also affects national productivity as the younger population is mainly involved in road traffic accidents. The number of road traffic accidents in Tamil Nadu has been on the rise. Data suggest that Tamil Nadu ranks first in the number of road traffic accidents in India.[2] Among these incidents, 21% were fatal and nearly 60% of them had a traumatic brain injury.[2] Studies have shown that the overall proportion of preventable deaths was 58%, of which major reasons were inadequacies in airway management and hemorrhage control.[3] Lack of standardized protocols, lack of adherence to protocols, pre-hospital delays, and delays in imaging also were major factors causing preventable deaths.[3] This begs the question, is India and Tamil Nadu in particular equipped and prepared to handle this load of patients with nearly fatal and debilitating injuries? There has been some commendable effort by the government through TAEI (Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency care Initiative) in regard to pre-hospital training, care, and setting up Emergency Services, but the need is overwhelming in comparison. Hence, to support the sheer number of patients, trauma centers focusing only on trauma care is the need of the hour. There are hardly any centers that focus only on trauma in the Deccan Peninsula. Thus, new centers with trauma care as the core objective planned extending all over golden quadrilateral and expressways with level I trauma centers on highways and levels II and III in the interior areas would be ideal.
Developed countries such as the US, UK, Australia, and Israel have trauma centers that are equipped to handle all kinds of trauma. Similarly, the aim is to bring to the general Indian population, the same world-class medical care. A team of zealous Emergency Physicians who specialize in early trauma care with the competence to effectively treat any kind of trauma, especially to all vital organs, strictly following approved protocols, equipped with cutting edge technology would form the backbone of these centers. Furthermore, more trained personnel would be required to attend to pre-hospital needs. These centers will be a valuable addition to the overall accessibility of the general population to prime medical care. Trauma care will be revolutionized with such centers, and its high time India caught up with our counterparts from developed countries in effectively managing polytrauma.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | |
| 2. | Joseph A, Kumar D, Bagavandas M, Nair RG. Road Traffic Injuries in Tamil Nadu: A Growing Public Health Issue. Indian J Comm Health 2019;31:268-72.  |
| 3. | Roy N, Kizhakke Veetil D, Khajanchi MU, Kumar V, Solomon H, Kamble J, et al. Learning from 2523 trauma deaths in India- opportunities to prevent in-hospital deaths. BMC Health Serv Res 2017;17:142. |
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