Sassoon General Hospital to get toll-free three-digit number for emergency cases, plans to have 100-bed trauma unit, fleet of ambulances and specialised course as part of its ambitious trauma care project
Sassoon General Hospital to get toll-free three-digit number for emergency cases, plans to have 100-bed trauma unit, fleet of ambulances and specialised course as part of its ambitious trauma care project
ADVERTISEMENT
If all goes well with a plan currently underway at Sassoon General Hospital, Puneites might not have much to complain about when it comes to emergency medical services. The state run tertiary care hospital and medical college is currently working on an ambitious trauma care project that aims to fill the lacunae of emergency medical services in the city.
A multi-crore project, Sassoon hospital has proposed not just starting a 100-bed centre only for emergency services but also starting a toll free three-digit number for people to dial in times of need.
According to Dr Renu Bharadwaj, dean of Sassoon general hospital, the project plan was prepared and sent to the directorate of medical education and research for approval almost a year ago.
Now the plan is close to completion and the hospital hopes to complete the civil work in a few months time.
"The specialised trauma centre is being built on the ground floor where the surgical OPD used to be. The operation theatre is ready and civil work is going on in the ward. Once that is done, we will start getting super sophisticated equipment like ventilators etc. moved there and start recruiting doctors," she said.
As part of the emergency services plan, Sassoon hospital is also set to get a fleet of modern ambulances. Some of them are super specialised like the cardiac ambulances, which are being donated by the alumni of the college. "A few ex-students, who are practising abroad, have written to us showing interest in getting ambulances for the hospital as a part of the trauma medicine project. We will soon finalise this proposal too," she said.
The most ambitious plan so far is getting a three digit emergency number for Sassoon hospital, which citizens can dial in case of emergencies.
"We want to provide the citizens with a single centralised number that they can dial in case of emergency requiring hospitalisation. The control unit of this number would be in Sassoon hospital but even if they require assistance from other hospitals, our number would be of help to them as we want to link all hospitals through one number," said Bharadwaj.
In the final leg of its trauma project, Sassoon hospital wants to start a course in trauma medicine, a proposal for which has already been sent to DMER.
"Once our trauma unit starts working, we will send a proposal to Medical Council of India and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences for starting the course on trauma medicine as we are facing acute shortage of trauma experts," said Bharadwaj.