KARACHI: The city of Karachi is facing a worrying problem as the deaths from road accidents are shockingly high. The problem exists mainly due to the fact that it takes hours to rush those injured in accidents to the city’s main hospitals located in the centre of the city. In light of the aforementioned problem, there is an urgent need of establishing freestanding emergency centres on the three major roads of the city. These include the Superhighway, National Highway and Hab River Road.
In developed countries, the idea of freestanding emergency centres has turned highly beneficial. The fact that these facilities can be established in relatively remote areas of the city is greatly advantageous as these facilities can provide 24-hour emergency services similar to any hospital- based emergency rooms. The major benefit of these freestanding emergency centres is the fact that they can provide emergency services to anyone injured in an accident at a place far from the main hospitals of the city. Thus, fatalities from such accidents would reduce, as precious time won’t be wasted in transporting the injured over long distances.
Karachi is in dire need of these centres as there has been an alarming increase in the number of people that have died in road accidents. This is partly due to the fact that major roads in far off areas have no hospitals for treatment. The presence of freestanding emergency centres would solve the issue as they would provide medical help to the injured without wasting any time in transporting them to a hospital.
Currently, people injured in road accidents are taken to three major hospitals of the city – the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) and the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital (ASH). However, because these hospitals are situated in the centre of the city, it takes a long time to shift those seriously injured in suburban areas to city centre hospitals owing to long distances and traffic jams.
The medical community in the city has been demanding for a long time that at least three emergency medical centres be set up at the Superhighway, National Highway and RCD Highway. It has been suggested that JPMC shoud set up first-aid centres at the National Highway near Quaidabad, CHK should set up a centre near Baldia Town on the RCD Road while ASH should set up one near New Sabzi Mandi on Superhighway. There freestanding emergency medical care centres would be directly linked to the main emergency centres of their institutions.
The medical community has also requested Sindh Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro to gauge the feasibility of the concept and implement the project with the necessary funding, infrastructure and manpower. It is possible that the provincial health department and relevant authorities could set up pilot projects to measure the scope of the project, and these pilot projects could also take the form of mobile hospital units.
