With the Formula 1 race inching closer, both the FortisHealthcare and Indraprastha Apollo hospitals – the healthcare providers for the event are marking their checklists before their teams formally depart for the event, starting Saturday.
Fortis Healthcare, which is providing the
extrication team with four members from Apollo has been practicing handling an emergency situation both on tracks and within hospital premises. The team has undergone over 100 hours of extrication training by Formula 1 extrication specialists.
“Fortis is also providing the 81 member manpower for spectator clinics and 10 of our advanced cardiac care ambulances. Any spectator watching the game whose medical injury needs to be attended to, including the grand stand where all VIPs are seated would be provided by us,” said Dr. Dilpreet Brar, regional director, Fortis Healthcare, who is overseeing the F1 medical preparedness.
“Last year, a spectator suffered an acute heart attack and had to be stabilized and transported to the hospital, similarly, another spectator sprained her ankle and was in immense pain so had to be given relief,” she said. Even on the tracks, there was a collision which caused minor burns to the driver. Fortis was the sole healthcare provider for the event last year.
Fortis Hospital, Noida which is the the (primary) referral centre in the event has also readied its helipad in case of a major eventuality, where a patient has to be airlifted.
Meanwhile, Dr. Priyadarshini Pal Singh, head of department of accident and emergency at Apollo Hospitals,who has been appointed as the deputy chief medical officer of the F1 Race by Federation of International Automobiles, will be personally manning the in-house medical centre to keep a close tab on both the medical teams and race control room in case of emergency where rescue teams have to be deputed.
“Apollo has 81 dedicated staffers- specialists, doctors and paramedics for the race. During our trainings, we stressed on responsiveness and internal communication of the teams, as it most important during such high adrenaline rush races that messages are properly conveyed on from race control to respective teams,” she said.