A global comparative study on road accidents has highlighted the need for a national law on Trauma Care Calls for establishment of the Right to Emergency Medical Care, with a special focus on trauma care, to save lives of trauma patients.
The demand has come after nearly 4,00,000 deaths in India were designated as “accidental deaths” with majority of them caused by road crashes. Between 2017 and 2021 alone, over 700,000 people have been killed in road crashes.
A 2020 report by the Ministry of Home Affairs states that well-established trauma care systems greatly help to reduce such deaths by nearly 20-25 per cent and serious disabilities by more than half. The 2020 Vital Statistics of India data released by the MHA mentioned that approximately 45 percent of the total fatalities registered during the year, amounting to 36.5 lakh people, died without receiving any medical attention.
As per the Emergency and Injury Care at District Hospitals in India report by NITI Aayog and AIIMS published in 2021, compliance with availability of overall recommended biomedical equipment and critical equipment was largely deficient in district hospitals, to the tune of 45- 60 percent.
The report also revealed that none of the district hospitals studied had all of the essential emergency medicines recommended for emergency departments.
To gauge where the gap lies with regard to the available emergency medical care in India, both in terms of written statutes and systems available, SaveLIFE Foundation, in collaboration with the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s TrustLaw Network has undertaken a global study to report on the prevalence of legal statutes to guarantee emergency medical care as a Statutory Right and the subsequent availability of commensurate systems in the studied countries.
The selected countries include a mix of both developing and developed nations, including the USA, Germany, England and Wales, Malaysia, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Pakistan and South Africa. The prevalence of such legal guarantees and grassroots systems in India has also been studied and included in the report.
The study investigated five distinct aspects of emergency medical care in these countries including availability of guaranteed/statutory right to emergency medical care; existence of separate federal and state laws and/or guidelines on the right and access to emergency medical care, and the ways in which they are harmonised and enforced.
“Trauma care helps preserve our fundamental right to life, but delivery of such care requires a system with interlinked sub-systems and uniform standards. Such standards can very well be established without an explicit ‘Right to Trauma Care’ law but a legislation would ensure that a framework to establish such standards and systems exist with appropriate authority, accountability and long-term sustainability.
The ‘Right to Education Act, 2009 is a classic example of how legislation can spur the creation of systems to ensure that the country progresses ahead.
This report documents the precedent of such actions taken by high as well as low- and middle-income countries. We hope that it will motivate a much-needed discourse amongst all stakeholders, with saving lives being at the front and centre of all discussions,” said Piyush Tewari, CEO and Founder, SaveLIFE Foundation which is closely working with the Union Road Transport and State Transport Ministries.