Daily Times

The Health experts on Sunday urged the authorities concerned to make arrangements to fill a gap in emergency care provision which is one doctor against 3200 patients on average.

They said at a seminar titled “Your Safety-Our Priority”, Pakistan has an increasing need for a strong emergency care system as, they said, emergency conditions, acute cardiovascular disease, road injuries, and stroke form the top 10 leading causes of death. They recalled that before the COVID 19 Pandemic doctors to patient ratio was one doctor for 1300 patients. However, this ratio increased to one doctor against 3200 patients leading to an insufficient number of Emergency Medicine (EM) Specialists and a large gap in quality emergency care provision.

The Medical Director (MD) at Maroof hospital Dr. Mir. Abdul Waheed suggested that the authorities concerned have to make some adequate measures to fill this deficiency.

He recalled curriculum of the College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) United Kingdom that, he said, EM is a field of practice based on the knowledge and skills required for the prevention, diagnosis and management of the acute and urgent aspects of illness and injury affecting patients of all age groups with a full spectrum of undifferentiated physical and behavioral disorders.

“It is a specialty in which time is critical. The first hour is called the golden hour in a patient’s recovery. And if a trained EM consultant available diagnoses and treats the patient in a timely fashion, the outcomes will be different. Studies have proved that most deaths occur in the first hour of trauma,” he explained.

He further stated that there is an acute shortage of EM specialists worldwide. However, Pakistan has only 4-5 EM Trained Professionals including him. The College of Physicians & Surgeons has started a fellowship program in this regard, and many people are coming to this field, but still, we need a lot more people. I request my junior colleagues to adopt EM as a career.

On the occasion, Haroon Naseer said that the developed countries have emergency medicine systems and well-designed special training programs for medical personnel specializing in EM. Whereas, EM in developing countries is still evolving.

“The purpose of observing EM Day is to raise awareness about the importance of free and high-quality emergency medical care, to encourage the policy makers to develop EM systems in the country with a particular focus on underdeveloped and remote areas,” he said.