For trauma patients reaching Lucknow from other districts, golden hour lost in travel

Lack of medical facilities for trauma patients in the state is compelling people to rush to Lucknow, thus wasting the precious golden hour – the first critical hour

Lack of medical facilities for trauma patients in the state is compelling people to rush to Lucknow, thus wasting the precious golden hour – the first critical hour after a trauma injury -- in travel. Doctors have often spoken about the importance of the golden hour and how getting the right care during this time can save lives.

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“Out of the total patients admitted to the trauma centre at the King George’s Medical University, half are from other districts,” said a senior doctor of the medical university. He said that if trauma centres of other districts were fully functional, patients could get speedy treatment there and no time would be lost in bringing them to Lucknow.

According to the data available, 425 trauma patients were brought from Barabanki to Lucknow in August last year, 343 in September and 477 in October. Similarly, from Sitapur, 504 patients were brought to Lucknow in August, 360 in September and 464 in October.

To recall, as many as 39 trauma centres were to come up in different districts of Uttar Pradesh and the concept for setting these up was discussed in July 2015.

However, just over half-a-dozen fully functional trauma centres have actually been started since then.

Sources said that even these centres were being run with the help of doctors of district hospitals and contractual staff.

The districts where fully functional trauma centres were supposed to come up but haven’t, so far, include Basti, Ayodhya, Jalon, Etawah, Fatehpur, Lalitpur, Ghaziabad, Lucknow (at Dr RMLIMS), Varanasi, Jaunpur, Kannauj, Azamgarh, Hardoi, Bulandshahr and Barabanki.

Officials said the locations of the proposed trauma centres were chosen strategically so that in case of road accidents or other mishaps, patients could receive medical help promptly. Each trauma centre was supposed to have orthopaedic and general surgeons along with a casualty medical officer, an anaesthetist and paramedical and technical staff, they said.