Tuesday, January 29, 2013

1298 Senior Citizen's Helpline partners Intergeneration Gap event

With great enthusiasm and dedication Wilson College, Mumbai organized an Intergeneration Gap event- a cultural evening for Senior Citizens. Over 200 senior citizens were part of this event and participated in various activities ranging from fancy dress to talent hunt. 1298 Senior Citizen's Helpline was the official partner of this event. Laxmi Rao the Project Co-ordinator shared her experience on 1298 Senior Citizen's Helpline and how the service can be availed. 1298 Mumbai was the Ambulance partner to take charge of any medical emergency.

Republic Day Celebration @ 108 Punjab

108 Punjab's team celebrated 64th The Republic Day @ Amritsar office with huge pomp and pride. The celebration was marked with flag hosting  ceremony dony by Mr Rod Scalon- Paramedic, Victoria Ambulance Service.  The celebration continued with playing of antakshri and games.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

UK Health Minister visits 108 Kerala office


A British Health Delegation led by Ms Anna Sourby MP,  UK  Parliamentary  Under-Secretary  of  State  for  Public visited ZHL Kerala office. 

Ms Sourby visit to ZHL'S CDC was to see our operations, process and ZHL's offering is benefitting people at large. Ms Sourby was extremely delighted to get hands on experience at ZHL office and was pleased to see LAS extending support to ZHL.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Does technology help in Road Safety?


We live in an era where vehicles boast of state-of-the-art technology, safety equipments, air-bags, alerts, auto-parking and other facilities that ensure the safety of the passenger. So much so one of the prominent car-markers is in the process of equipping its car with a technology which alerts the driver, if the car is shifting the lane abruptly & brings it back on track. This apparently is to ensure if the driver falls asleep behind the wheel, it shouldn’t lead to any fatalities.
Why, inspite of all these precautions, the accident rate continues to rise along with the fatalities in all the countries including India.  The technology seems to assist drivers at each and every juncture but still hasn’t been much of a help when saving lives. Here is why:
It turns out every human is hard-wired into taking certain amount of risks in life. These levels differ basis a person’s  ability but whenever these risks are accompanied by a safer option then, we automatically move up the ante by taking higher risks to maintain the levels.
So, if your car has air-bags, you know you can take a chance with speeding. You let your guard down while taking a reverse knowing the sensors will help you out and in future might start taking eyes off road knowing the lane driving would be taken care of by the system.
In upping the ante, the driver might be safe but others on road might not be that lucky. Its difficult for even technology to predict where children are playing on the street or where elderly people are crossing the road. And most of the times these lapses cost a lot.
Also, all of those who complain women of slow driving, rest assured that they are the safer of the two as their concentration levels while driving are higher. Here’s how
On September 7, 2009, Pacific Island of Samoa decided to shift from right hand driving to left hand driving. The main reason for Samoa's switch is that two of its biggest neighbours, Australia and New Zealand, drive on the left-hand side. There were wide-spread protests that such an act would lead to more accidents & fatalities whereas the result was exactly opposite.
The accident rate in fact fell in the period following the switch than going up. Why?
For most people driving quickly becomes a practice run by habits and automatic responses. However, relying on habits means that we are sometimes surprised which doesn’t account for people crossing or anything out of the ordinary.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

108 Kite Distribution @ Punjab

With the ongoing festive season across India 108 Punjab initiated an innovative activity of distributing 108 kites to spread awareness across Ludhiana. Over 100 kites were distributed with support of residents to educate people on the services provided by 108 Punjab.

This activity was hugely appreciated by media fraternity.

Friday, January 11, 2013

ZHL wins TOI Social Impact Award 2012

We welcomed 2013 with a big bang by winning the prestigious TOI Social Impact Award 2012 in health category. TOI Social Impact Award is an attempt to honour organizations who have taken the plunge and worked on delivering essential needs to compartriots as education, healthcare and decent livelihood. 

The finalist was decided by reputed jury comprised of Naresh Chandra- Former Cabinet Secretary, Governor of Gujrat, Ambassador to the US, Advisor to PMs, Nandan Nilekani- Chairman of the UIAI, Anu Aga- Business Leader, Rajya Sabha MP and Member of National Advisory Council, JM Lyngdoh- Former Chief Election Commissioner, Aruna Roy- Member NAC and Architect of RTI Act, Deepak Parekh- Chairman HDFC, Syeda Hameed- Member Planning Commision, Sunita Narain- Head of Centre for Science & Environment.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Demo for Police Dept @ 108 Punjab

In another attempt to reach out to more people to spread the word about 108, Ambulance crew of 108 Punjab organized a Demo and Awareness Camp for Police Department. The Camp comprised of various equipments installed in 108 Ambulance, how to avail the service and how the police department can play huge role during emergency situations like accidents.

The Police Department requested 108 team to organize similar camp for other police department in different regions of Punjab.

Demo Camp @ 108 Rajasthan

Over 100 students from Nursing College in Sikar participated in a Demo Camp organized by 108 Rajasthan. Demo Camp comprised of the educating students on various services provided by 108 Ambulances, equipments in Ambulance and how to avail the service.

The College authorities along with students thanked 108 Ambulance crew for equipping them with basic yet important information.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The evolution of Emergency Medical Services in Developed & Developing Countries



 Today’s global EMS has advanced so much that it contributes widely to the overall function of health care systems. The World Health Organization regards EMS systems as an integral part of any effective and functional health care system. It is the first point of contact for the majority of people to health care services during emergencies and life-threatening injuries and act as a gate-keeping step for accessing secondary and tertiary services. Emergency medical providers around the world have developed an extended role to deal with medical and trauma emergencies utilizing advanced clinical technology.
Since 1970s, the mode of emergency health care delivery in pre-hospital environment evolved around two main models of EMS with distinct features. These are the Anglo-American and the Franco-German model. These categorical distinctions were obvious during the 1970s until the end of the 20th century. Today, most EMS systems around the world have varied compositions from each model. 
The delivery of emergency medical services in pre-hospital settings can be categorized broadly into Franco-German or Anglo-American models according to the philosophy of pre-hospital care delivery. Another method of EMS classification is according to the level of care provided into Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support according to the level of care provided.
The Franco-German model of EMS delivery is based on the “stay and stabilize” philosophy. The motive of this model is to bring the hospital to patients.  It is usually run by physicians and they have extensive scope of practice with very advanced technology. The model utilizes more of other methods of transportations alongside land ambulance such as helicopters and coastal ambulances. This model is usually a sub-set of the wider health care system. This philosophy is widely implemented in Europe in which emergency medicine is relatively a young field. Therefore in Europe, pre-hospital emergency care is almost always provided by emergency physicians.  The attending emergency doctors in the field have the authority to make complex clinical judgment and treat patients in their homes or at the scene. This results in many EMS users being treated at the site of incident and less being transported to hospitals. The very few transported patients are usually directly admitted to hospital wards by the attending field emergency medicine physician bypassing the emergency department. Countries such as Germany, France, Greece, Malta and Austria have well-developed Franco-German EMS systems.
In contrast to the Franco-German model, the Anglo-American model is based around “scoop and run” philosophy. The aim of this model is to rapidly bring patients to the hospital with less pre-hospital interventions. It is usually allied with public safety services such as police or fire departments rather than public health services and hospitals. Trained paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) run the system with a clinical oversight. It relies heavily on land ambulance and less so on aero-medical evacuation or coastal ambulance. In countries following this model, emergency medicine is well-developed and generally recognized as a separate medical specialty. Almost all patients in the Anglo-American model are transported by EMS personnel to developed Emergency Departments rather than hospital wards. Countries which use this model of EMS delivery include the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Sultanate of Oman and Australia.

In stark disparity, many developing nations struggle to provide basic emergency medical care to their citizens.  Adequate infrastructure is often lacking, and even in areas with significant financial and medical resources, emergency medical personnel training is limited. Furthermore, EM is often not recognized as a medical specialty overseas, making it unfeasible for interested care providers to obtain the skills required to deliver effective care.
An extrapolation from a report provided by the World Health Organisation(WHO) on emergency medical cases indicates that by 2020 road crashes will be a major killer in India, accounting for 546,000 deaths. Although India has only one per cent of the world’s motor vehicles, it still accounts for six per cent of the total global Road Traffic Accidental (RTA) deaths. Moreover, registered deaths due to other medical emergencies such as stroke, cardiac arrests, natural calamities and terrorist attacks are also mounting. Dr Kole in one of the white papers has mentioned that in India 98.5 per cent ambulances are used for transporting dead bodies, 90 per cent of ambulances are devoid of oxygen equipment, 95 per cent ambulances have untrained personnel, most ED doctors having no formal training in EM, there is misuse of government ambulances and 30 per cent mortality has been reported in recent times due to delay in care.
Also, in many developing countries the pre-hospital activities are not coordinated with hospital activities. Typically the patients are brought by private or by public transport (police ambulances, rescue services ambulances, mainly civil defense, etc.) without any information and without coordination among the various agencies. Often this leads to inappropriate transfer of patients to hospitals having not the technical capability (nor the capacity in the case of mass casualty situations) to treat these patients so that secondary transfer of patients is necessary. Most often all patients are brought to single hospital while the other nearby health care facility is not utilized or sometimes patients are brought to the nearest hospital to the emergency site which in most cases is unable to manage the patient properly due to lack of facilities and expertise to manage such a case. Often the receiving hospital cannot mobilize in due time its internal resources due to the lack of timely information regarding the arrival of patients in the case of mass casualty situations.

Thus, in such a scenario, specialized Ambulance services with trained personnels & evolved technology is a boon for an economy like us, headed towards becoming a global superpower, which help in securing, enhancing & enriching every life in need. A phenomenon crucial for maintaining the balance between progress & humanity.
What else can be done to improve the Emergency Medical Services in India?
·         To develop faculty out of other specialties 
·         To train the faculty in countries where emergency medicine is being practiced
·         To have exchange programmes 
·         To plan for EMS training, Paramedic training EM nursing
·         To formulate disaster plan
·         To form governing body and academic council