The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Government hospital ill-equipped to treat multiple injury victims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 20, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Government hospital ill-equipped to treat multiple injury victims

Divya Ramamurthi

An accident victim with multiple injuries will have to be taken to NIMHANS and Sanjay Gandhi hospital

TRAUMATIC CARE: The Sanjay Gandhi Accident Hospital and Research Institute in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: In a serious road accident when a victim's life is ebbing away, there is no clear choice of government hospital for treatment.

As government hospitals are not equipped to deal with multiple injuries, in its entirety, the treatment is often piece meal. For example, a road accident victim, who has a head injury as well as fractured ribs, will have to go to two hospitals - the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) and the Sanjay Gandhi Accident Hospital and Research Institute for treatment.

NIMHANS, where most multiple injury victims land, says it cannot treat such cases for want of orthopaedic surgeons and general physicians. "We are a specialised organisation which focuses on mental health issues. We cannot handle fracture cases," says NIMHANS Director D. Nagaraja.

Sanjay Gandhi Accident Hospital and Research Institute, a specialised trauma care hospital, says it can only take care of orthopaedic cases.

The hospital says it does not have neurosurgeons to deal with multiple injury cases and has no basic diagnostic equipment such as CT (computerised tomography) scan machine.

"We did not have adequate funds to buy diagnostic equipment until recently. We have asked for a CT scan machine," says Govindaraju, Director of Sanjay Gandhi Accident Hospital and Research Institute. The hospital procured four portable X-ray machines a few months ago.

Dr. Govindaraju says that his hospital does not admit road accident cases because it has no expertise in handling them. "Since NIMHANS is just around the corner, we send them there," he adds.

Similarly, Victoria Hospital and Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital say they cannot treat multiple injury cases because they do not have specialist neurosurgeons.

According to the police, 2,900 people were injured in road accidents till June 30 this year.

There have been 393 fatal accidents and 3,261 non-fatal accidents.

In 2005, 5,800 people were injured. There were 793 fatal accidents and 6,782 non-fatal accidents.

Dr. Nagaraja says it is the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and Research Institute's responsibility to take care of multiple injury victims. "We are willing to train the neurologists at the Sanjay Gandhi hospital to treat head injury cases," he says.

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