GURUGRAM: In order to provide timely medical help to accident victims, the Gurugram regional transport authority (RTA) has claimed that the authority in collaboration with the Health department and the Traffic police have reduced an earlier response time from 18 minutes in November 2020 to 12 minutes in February this year.
Medical experts said the first hour after the mishap is considered the golden hour, and a delay of a few minutes could claim the victim's life. In several cases, the victims died due to excessive bleeding and lack of timely medical help.
RTA officials said they had analysed data for the month of November 2020 and found that it takes 18 minutes on an average for a road accident victim to get medical aid. RTA officials say that since February this year, the response time has been reduced to 12 minutes.
"We have asked the Gurugram Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Virender Yadav, to coordinate with the private health facilities in the city and work out an arrangement under which the private hospital nearest to the accident sites can send their ambulances. This practice will surely cut down the response time and will help in saving valuable lives, " Gurugram RTA Secretary, Dhaarna Yadav, told IANS.
Gurugram has a large number of private hospitals located in nearly every corner of the district. All the private hospitals along with private ambulance operators together own nearly 500 ambulances in Gurugram.
Therefore, the nearest private hospital is in the best position to provide timely medical help to road mishap victims, said RTA officials.
Yadav informed that in many cases, commuters take accident victims to the nearest private hospital on their own, but private hospitals do not keep records of such instances.
"Private hospitals should alert the Health department officials after admitting any accident victim. At present, they are only informing the police, " said Yadav, adding that, she has asked health officials to prepare records of the time lapse between road accidents and death of the victims and find out ways to reduce the response time.
The RTA official revealed that in 2021 nearly 55 people lost their lives in road accidents in the city, while in 2020 nearly 380 people had died in accidents.
According to the data shared by the police, in 2019 nearly 433 people had died in road mishaps while in 2018, 446 deaths were reported in Gurugram. In 2017, the number of fatalities stood at 415, 435 deaths in 2016 whereas in 2015 at least 400 people lost their lives at multiple stretches of the district.