{UAH} We should boost our pre-hospital emergency system

We should boost our pre-hospital emergency system

Every festive season, the number of accidents increases. Sadly, very few of us can manage victims at accident scenes. Uganda has no formal pre-hospital emergency system. Many injured people arrive at health facilities by boda boda, police trucks, and private cars.

Less than five per cent arrive by public ambulances because few exist and others are privately owned and prohibitively expensive. Many casualties arrive after the "golden hour" (first hour after the injury has occurred), which time determines survival. Currently, pre-hospital care is given on a voluntary basis, by police, drivers, bystanders at crash scenes.

Consequently, many of the victims die during the pre-hospital stage and comparative studies in high and low income countries have shown that half of trauma deaths occur during this stage.

The World Health Organisation has recommended training of lay persons as first responders especially in settings where formal emergency systems are absent. Pre-hospital care, therefore, can be improved by training lay persons such as local leaders, village health teams, teachers, and police officers in simple but vital lifesaving skills, such as clearing the airway, arresting bleeding, immobilising fractures, etc.

The police, through its traffic department, has been a beneficiary to first responder trainings organised by the Injury Control Center of Uganda. Police officers are some of the first responders to emergencies on the road and in communities, and during the festive season we expect them to help casualties.

This year, the FIA Foundation, through the Road Safety Fund attempted to evaluate the impact of first responder trainings on traffic police officers and the community. One interesting finding was that most traffic officers could recall the ABC skill of assessing the casualty's airway, breathing and blood circulation.

It was also noted that many officers have already exhibited management of bleeding and putting victims in recovery position. But according to what we see on television, this rarely happens.

What we see is poor handling of victims and no first aid skill is exhibited at all. However, the findings raise hope since we expect better care at accident scenes; after all we are all potential victims. Let us desist from vices like theft and instead give love and support to road accident victims.

Mable N Tomusange,
Injury Control Center-Uganda.

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"War is nothing but a  continuation of political intercourse, with a mixture of other means. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." 

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