Delhi, being the national Capital and a thriving metro, may have one of the best networks of healthcare facilities and service providers in the country, yet the city records a high death rate due to road accidents and emergency cases every year.
According to the Delhi Police, the Capital recorded 1,725 deaths in 2013 due to road accidents, a glaring example of the Capital’s trauma care facilities to manage emergency cases. Quite shockingly, the Capital, with a population of over a crore, has only two trauma centres and out of the two, Delhi Government has only one trauma centre to its credit and that too is in shambles. The other trauma centre is Central Government-funded.
The Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre, AIIMS caters to a highly variable population base as it gets people from all over the country, but the vast infrastructure has failed to provide sufficiently to emergency cases. Vindicating the issue of infrastructural deficit, some staff members and patients revealed that despite a huge area on which it is built, the centre lacked number of doctors and beds to provide for the patients which sometime causes mishaps.
“There are 178 beds in the centre which is not sufficient for the number of patients because of which some people have to be turned down,” said a senior official of the trauma centre, adding that the centre received nearly 60,000 patients in 2013, out of which 30,000 cases fell under the category of Medico legal Cases (MlC) which include accidents, assaults, suicide attempts etc.
Worse is the condition of the Sushruta Trauma Centre, run by the city Government, where there as many cockroaches and rats as there are patients. When asked about this condition of the trauma centre, a senior officer of the centre said that talks are already in place to get rid of this problem. “We are in talks with some people about it. Tender will be finalised soon and it will be taken care of,” he said.
The condition of patients and the facilities at the Sushruta Trauma Centre is horrifying. Some aggrieved patients sighed helplessness while still others expressed anger and frustration. After seeing her relative unattended and in pain for almost five days at the centre, Deepa, a resident of Usmanpur, lost her patience. “My nephew met with an accident five days ago severely injuring his leg and we rushed him here hoping for good treatment. He has to be operated upon and a rod has to be inserted in his leg but doctors said that the equipment used for surgery is not working and hence, they are waiting. It has been over four days and he has been left unattended,” said an agonised Deepa.
Patients also complained of the non-availability of medicines and equipment for treatment, saying that they have to rush to chemist shops outside to find the medicines. “Doctors said that if we wanted the surgery, we had to buy the rod which will be inserted besides medicines. If we have to spend so much money on these items, then what are Government hospitals forIJ” said Deepa. There is a swarm of people who remain in long queues to get their ailing patients attended. Even in emergency situations, the response sometimes is not swift while some are discharged from the centre only to manage the crisis of beds.
“My husband had a head injury and was admitted here for 10 days. He is still in coma and unwell but was discharged because there were other patients who needed the bed. So we had to bring him here again as he was not recuperating at home,” said Kamla who brought her husband for a recheck after a week of early discharge at the AIIMS Trauma Centre. Agreeing with the lack of adequate infrastructure in trauma care, former Director of AIIMS Trauma Centre
Dr MC Mishra said, “Yes, it is not sufficient because more than half the population relies on Government healthcare centres which are flooded with patients everyday. Some patients are admitted for a longer duration and in this situation everyone cannot be catered to that effectively. However, efforts are being made to improve the system.”