The inauguration of a satellite emergency station in HCM City’s Binh Thanh Hospital (Photo: congan.com.vn)HCM City (VNA) – A new model that sets up satellite emergency
stations in all HCM City districts has helped saved many lives, both
victims and seriously ill patients, over the last two years.
The satellite emergency
stations, functioning under district-level hospitals, have proven particularly
useful in instances where there was not enough time to rush seriously injured
accident victims or seriously ill patients to hospitals because of traffic
congestion, a review conference heard last week.
The new model was
applied after it was seen that the municipal , set up in
2013, was unable to fulfill its duties properly because of poor infrastructure
and personnel shortages.
In response, the city’s
Health Department decided to apply an out-of- hospital emergency service that
had proved effective in several developed countries.
Doctor Tang Chi Thuong,
deputy director of the city’s Health Department, said they had studied the
model and applied “local specific characteristics” in deploying the satellite
emergency stations in districts.
These stations have been
able to make full use of their human sources to rescue victims in the quickest
possible way, taking advantage of the “golden time in treatment,”
typically providing first aid no more than 5 minutes after receiving
information, he said.
The satellite emergency
stations need the co-operation and medical intervention of many health
professionals from the city’s leading hospitals in order to save victims in
very serious conditions.
Doctor Do Thanh Tuan,
head of the District 4 General Hospital, which also plays the role of a
satellite emergency station, said their emergency ward received 70-80 patients
from both District 4 and neighboring areas every day.
“Our doctors and medical
workers have saved many people who were in critical condition before being
hospitalised,” Dr Tuan said.
“District 4’s
network of narrow alleys is an obstacle course for medical workers and
ambulances to reach the scene in the case of emergency. Therefore, carrying out
emergency operations at a satellite hospital becomes necessary to take
advantage of the golden time.”
Dr Le Hoang Quy, deputy
head of the Binh Thanh District General hospital – a satellite emergency
station, said they had to arrange doctors and medical workers into two
first-aid shifts operating around the clock, with each shift having two
doctors, four nurses and an ambulance driver.
Whenever the hospital
received an emergency call, an ambulance with qualified medical workers quickly
left for the scene to help victims as fast and as safely as possible.
At the same time, the
hospital has set aside at least 18 beds for patients in critical situations if
the number of victims is higher.
Dr Quy said surgeons
were always ready to assist medical workers at emergency stations to tackle
complicated cases, adding that about 30 beds were prepared for emergency cases
a day.
The city’s Health
Department has asked district-level hospitals to enroll as satellite emergency
stations, deputy director Tang Chi Thuong said.
As a ,
the hospital will be fully responsible for the preparation of adequate
infrastructure, qualified ambulances and medical workers.
So far, the city has 21
, and expects all inner and outskirts districts to
have at least one such station this year to respond when people call 115.
The department has
recorded that the number of calls made to 115 increased to 11,854 in the first
10 months of 2016, compared to 6,805 in 2014, demonstrating increased
confidence in the emergency service.
At least 30 people in
critical condition have been saved.
In particular, six
patients were saved by timely surgical intervention at district-level hospitals
last year. Dr Thuong said the risk of death would have been very high if
patients had been moved to the city’s leading hospital, as was done earlier.
To develop the 115
Emergency Centre, Thuong said he had submitted to the municipal administration
a project to train medical workers for out-of-hospital emergency services.
He also proposed that
the city authorities invest more in infrastructure for the 115 Emergency
Centre, especially in an automatic control system.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
