GURUGRAM: It takes around 16 minutes on an average for an ambulance to reach an accident spot in the city, according to the records of the health department. In order to provide timely medical help and increase the chances of survival of victims, the authorities are planning to bring it down to 10-12 minutes.
According to medical experts, the first hour after the accident is considered the golden hour, and a delay of a few minutes could be fatal in some cases. In most accident cases, people succumb to excessive bleeding from their injuries due to delay in timely medical aid. Cutting down the time for ambulances to reach accident victims could help in reducing the number of road fatalities, regional transport authority (RTA) officials said.
In case of an accident, people usually dial 108 or 100 (police control room), and all these calls go to Civil hospital, from where an ambulance leaves for the accident victim.
“We have asked the health department to cut short the response time and bring it to 10-12 minutes,” said Gurugram RTA secretary Dhaarna Yadav.
The official added that she has also asked the health department to tie-up with private hospitals in the city and work out an arrangement under which the private hospital nearest to the accident site can send their ambulance. “It would considerably cut short the response time and help in saving several lives,” she said.
Gurugram has a large number of private hospitals located in almost every part of the district, and the nearest private hospital would be in the best position to provide medical help to road accident victims. All these private hospitals along with private ambulance operators together own around 500 ambulances in Gurugram.
“We will have to work out a system under which a private hospital, depending on its distance from the accident spot, gets a notification about a crash,” said a senior officer, adding that it will certainly help in saving many lives.
In many cases, commuters take accident victims to the nearest private hospital on their own, but private hospitals do not keep records of such instances. “Private hospitals should alert the health department officials after receiving an accident victim. At present, they are only informing cops,” said Yadav, adding that she has asked health officials to prepare records of the time lapse between road accidents and death of victims and find out ways to reduce response time.
Dr MP Singh, deputy civil surgeon and head of referral transport unit of Civil Hospital, said they have 24 ambulances, out of which five are equipped with advanced life support systems, 11 have basic life support, six are patient transport ambulances and two are for children.
“We dispatch an ambulance as soon as possible after receiving a call, but time to reach the accident spot depends on traffic and distance. We will work towards improving response time,” Singh said.
Elaborating about the efforts being taken by the department to reach the accident site in the shortest time possible, Singh said all the ambulances drivers have been directed to check the route on their mobile phones after receiving alerts about accidents and decide the routes accordingly.
Some ambulances will be stationed in the areas which report maximum accidents, he said. Usually, an ambulance driver finds it difficult to locate the accident spot due to sketchy details about the site. “Now onwards, we will ask the caller to also share the location of the spot on Google Maps, so the driver will not have to waste time in finding the site,” he said.
Private hospitals, when contacted, said they would be happy to join the initiative but pointed out some problems. “After accidents, people call on 108 or 100, and all these calls go to Civil Hospital. We don’t get any alert about the accident, even if it happens close to our hospital. We receive accident patients only when they are brought to our hospital by commuters,” a doctor who runs a hospital in old Gurgaon said.