March 17, 2010
Amrita School of Medicine, Kochi
 

A training program in Basic Life Support (BLS) & Pre-Hospital Trauma Care was inaugurated for police personnel of the Ernakulam District at Amrita’s Health Sciences campus on February 11, 2010.
 

The main aim of this training program was to provide life-saving skills to police personnel; many times, they are among the first to arrive at the scene of accidents and if adequately trained, they can intervene and help save thousands of lives.
 

The importance of training traffic police as well as other police personnel in providing first-aid and basic-life-support is widely recognized across the globe. It is statistically estimated that over half the lives lost in road traffic accidents, could have been saved if first aid and basic life support was immediately made available to victims.
 

Mr. Jacob Punnoose (IPS), Director-General of Police, Ernakulam District, inaugurated the training program.
 

“There has already been a thirty per cent reduction in the number of road accidents in the past few years, and such a service will help the number of casualties further come down. Further this will help link hospitals with the police control room and that could be of great service to society,” he stated.
 

“The State Government, along with the Road Safety Authority, is planning to introduce 150-200 fully-equipped ambulances for trauma care during accidents and emergencies,” he added. “Rs. 10 crore would be made available for the training of 800 paramedical staff to support the ambulance facility.”
 

“We are in talks with the Indian Medical Association to also help prepare the police to handle trauma during accidents, emergencies and disasters,” Mr. Punnoose added. Appreciating Amrita’s initiative of providing training to the police personnel, he requested other major hospitals also to join in the venture.
 

Mr. Punnoose made a plea to the medical community to help inculcate the use of helmets among two-wheeler riders. “Almost 750 of the total 980 two-wheeler accident deaths reported last year were due to the non-use of helmets,” he emphasized. “These deaths were not due to speeding.”
 

The trauma care training will be availed by 2,000 policemen of the Ernakulam district in batches of 30. The courses are being conducted by Amrita experts in the fields of critical care medicine, emergency medicine, anesthesia and internal medicine.
 

Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director at Amrita, Dr. Sanjeev K. Singh, Senior Administrative Officer, Br. Pradeep, CIO, Amrita Technologies, and Prof. Lakshikumar, Dept. of Anasthesia and Critical Care, also spoke.