National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences( NIMHANS) received Rs.300 crore national grant to set up National Poly Trauma centre at its second campus in Bengaluru. This facility is on the similar lines that of the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre (JPNATC), New Delhi which is an integrated level 1 trauma centre in India coming under the umbrella of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

In 2010, the Union government had assigned the setting up of six new AIIMS-like institutes at Rishikesh, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Raipur, Jodhpur and Patna to focus emergency and trauma care. AIIMS Delhi has now chipped in its expertise to train the doctors, nurses and para medics at these facilities.

Now NIMHANS has been assigned for a National Poly Trauma Centre going by its capability in handling brain and related neurological injuries arising from accidents by the union government.

One of the features of National Poly Trauma Centre is that apart from treating the accident cases it would focus on in-depth and comprehensive training and rehabilitation. The Neuro Biological lab with its 15 labs located within the campus of NIMHANS will provide the much needed impetus to handle many of the trauma conditions. The facility which is equipped with Flow cytometry and a spectro phytometre would provide an understanding to the cellular and proteomic studies resulting from accidents and trauma, , Dr. P Satishchandra, director, National Institute of Mental Health told Pharmabiz in an interaction.

NIMHANS also received its recognition as an Institute of importance via a notification in the Gazette on February 5, 2014. This has given a boost to its efforts of setting up its second and Northern campus in Bengaluru at the Kyalasanahalli, KR Puram on a 40 acres plot for which the foundation stone was laid on March 15, 2013. “The government of Karnataka has granted 30 acres and we are now constructing a compound wall of 8 feet height in which will be ready in 6 months,” he added.

The second campus will be developed in a phased manner and equipped with the National Poly Trauma Centre which is a hi-tech centrally air-conditioned, equipped with integrated PACS accessibility streamlining of services in a seamless manner, state-of-the-art operating rooms.

The National Poly Trauma Centre project centre is viewed by NIMHANS as a big advantage for the country, particularly in Karnataka and Bengaluru where road accidents have assumed epidemic proportions.

India also accounts 10 per cent of total road accident fatalities globally primarily due to the increasing number of vehicles and the lack of pre-hospital trauma care system which is a critical component in ensuring a patient's survival. It is reported that 40 per cent fatalities are attributed to the delay in accessing the right comprehensive facility.

For the fiscal, 2013-14, NIMHANS had 4,57,693 patients of which 35,228 received emergency care. It performed 6,144 brain and spinal surgeries and interventions.