Karnataka through its State Institute of Health & Family Welfare has given a booster shot to its existing medical services by partnering with Temasek Foundation and SingHealth. The state government is also working to ensure that all the 30 districts in the state are linked with telemedicine. It is also ensuring that there is one ambulance available at every 10 kilometre radius.
 
Under the Karnataka Rapid Access Care Emergency System (K-RACES) initiative, SingHealth has put in place a systematic approach to better manage pre-hospital environment with a slew of protocols for the state. SingHealth will provide training and share knowledge with the emergency teams in the state and equip them with advanced emergency care skills to manage critical emergencies covering major trauma, cardiac arrest, breathing difficulties, chest pain, poisoning and burns besides community first responder courses.
 
Sixty participants will be trained as Master trainers at a five-day workshop at the Singapore General Hospital. “The three year pilot project which is the country’s first ever response emergency programme has already trained two batches of government medical teams as a pilot project. We would commence the third batch in January,” Dr. AR Aruna, director, State Institute of Health & Family Welfare told Pharmabiz.
 
The move is to give a fillip to the state’s access to early emergency care. “We are gearing up to ensure that the patients in the remote rural areas can have access to telemedicine and an ambulance,” said Karnataka health and family welfare minister KR Ramesh Kumar.
 
Tay Boon Keng, emeritus consultant, internal collaboration office, Singapore who was in Bengaluru said that emergency care is an integral part of healthcare system. This training programme will bring in long-term benefits to the people.
 
The objective of the KRACES is to improve the survival outcomes provided by our Arogya Kavacha 108 for initial resuscitation, stabilisation, shock management and referral to secondary and tertiary facilities for further management. This training will multiply the benefit of knowledge shared, added health minister Ramesh.
 
The courses would help 300 healthcare professionals in and around Karnataka. Participants will undergo pre-hospital and emergency care skills training. Karnataka reports a maternal mortality rate of 144 per lakh live births, infant mortality rate of 31 per 1,000 births, road traffic accident mortality of 30 per lakh. All these would drastically come down with access to early emergency care, said Prof. Venkatraman Antharaman, senior consultant, department of emergency medicine, Singapore General Hospital.
 
“The need of the hour is to identify the simple-to-determine clinical outcomes. For this, there is need to draw care protocols that take into consideration the need to commence a variety of emergency treatments on-site. Early access to emergency care beginning with ambulance support in Karnataka can support its existing pre-hospital and inter facility patient transport, if teams are trained in handling medical emergencies, said Dr. Antharaman.