Journalism of Courage
A team of experts from the Centre of Disease Control (CDC),Atlanta,USA,visited Pune to review the medical management efforts by hospitals after the German Bakery blast. They have chosen Sassoon General Hospital to be the coordinator in disaster management in the city.
Dr Arun Jamkar,Dean,B J Medical College and Sassoon General hospital said a meeting was held between 10 private hospitals and medical colleges in the city and members of CDC on Saturday as part of an Indo-US collaborative effort towards developing disaster management for the city.
At the meeting,held at BJ Medical College,the 10 hospitals including Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital,Inlaks & Budhrani and Ruby Hall gave presentations on their efforts during the blasts. Dr Isaac Eskanzy,member of CDC,and a leader of one of the EMS systems in Israel,gave inputs on the role of bystanders in handling situations following disasters and gave valuable advice on how community resilience was important.
According to Jamkar,the focus was on how to clear up the disaster-struck area within 2-4 hours and reconstructing the destroyed unit within four days. Dr Sagar Galvankar,member of CDC,suggested remedies and methods to improve the system.
Dr Sanjeev Bhoi,an emergency physician and prof of Emergency Medicine in AIIMS,talked about the requirement of staff dedicated entirely to emergency medical services. He stressed that stable and patients with minor injuries should not refer themselves to hospitals which were not very close to the site of the disaster as it would exhaust the resources of those hospitals. Instead,seriously injured patients should be given priority so that the golden hour is not lost.
Fire brigade personnel and officials of Pune Municipal Corporations health department also attended the meeting.
