Emergency Medical Care doesn’t start at the Emergency Care at the hospital, it starts at the disaster site: Dr.Thomas Wilp

Hyderabad, February 16, 2019: Dr.Thomas Wilp, First Aid and Prehospital Care Coordinator, Health Unit, Assistance Division, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, Switzerland while speaking on EMS in Mass Casualty Incidents at the two-day international conference of Emergency Medical Services being held at GVK EMRI Campus, Devar Yamzal, Hyderabad said that in an emergency every first responder must be aware of their role and roles of other respondents. Speaking about Mass Casualty Management System, he asked the EMTs to shift from individual emergency patient care to emergency medical care for several. He said hospitals have big books and plans for mass casualty management system but they must be put to test from time to time. Pre-established protocols and procedures are essential and we must maximise use of existing resources, he opined. Emergency medical care doesn’t start at the Emergency care at the hospital, it starts at the disaster site, Dr. Thomas Wilp said. The two-day international conference which kicked off today will conclude on Sunday. Dr. Thomas Wilp also talked about the new simplified Triage plan developed by WHO and ICRC, in collaboration with the International Federation for Emergency Medicine, Basic Emergency Care (BEC): Approach to the acutely ill and injured which will be very helpful for frontline healthcare providers. He informed that the plan developed late last year is freely available on WHO site. It was produced in response to requests from various countries and partners, he informed. There is an open-access training course online too, he said. The new plan viz. BEC teaches a systematic approach to the initial assessment and management of time-sensitive conditions where early intervention saves lives. Dr. G.V. Ramana Rao, Director – Emergency Medicine Learning Centre (EMLC) and Research, GVK EMRI speaking on the sidelines said that the first of its kind of conference for Ambulance Paramedics is a good opportunity for Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics to learn about best practices and advances in Pre-hospital care field. This conference recognises the important segment of profession – ambulance paramedics. One of the faculty S.V. Mahadevan, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University speaking on the sidelines said that India has largest Prehospital Care system in the world and it is very important to train and equip them better for better outcomes. Mr. GKR Raju, Organising Secretary of the conference informed that SAPCOsN 2019, a two-day international conference on Emergency Medical Services (EMS) being held at GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (GVK EMRI) Campus, Medchal, Hyderabad. SAPCON 2019 is organised by Society for Ambulance Paramedics – India (SAP) with an aim to bring national and international best practices and advances in Pre-hospital care field, scope of practice, education & research, cutting edge technology in EMS and career opportunities for EMS professionals. About 45 faculty including some big names in Emergency Medicine such as Dr. S V Mahadevan from Stanford School of Medicine; Dr. G V Ramana Rao from GVK EMRI; Dr. K. Hari Prasad and Dr. Mahesh Joshi from Apollo Hospitals group; Dr. TV Ramakrishnan from Sri Rama Chandra Medical College, Chennai; Dr. George Abraham and Dr. Prasad Rajhans, Dr. Satish Kumar are some of the prominent speakers in this Emergency Care Conference. About 400 delegates from across India and few other countries too are participating in the conference. International speakers from United States of America, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Nepal, Bhutan, Qatar and Switzerland.