The University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore has established an institute of 'Learning Emergency Medicine' to train medical students, health professionals and emergency relief workers in basic and advanced life support courses.
The institute has been established in collaboration with Disaster Relief by Irish and Pakistani (DRIP), Ireland, National Ambulance Services College, Dublin and Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council of Ireland.
UHS vice-chancellor Professor Malik Hussain Mubbashar, Director Emergency Medicine University College Dublin, Professor Dr Gerard Bury and Head of Education and Competency for the National Ambulance Services Ireland Professor Macartan Hughes, inaugurated the institute here at the UHS on Monday.
Addressing on this occasion, Professor Malik Hussain Mubbashar declared year 2011 as "Year of Emergency Medicine and Pre-Hospital Emergency Care." He said that patient's immediate care was a field in medicine, which needed to be standardised as most of lives were lost in first 10 'golden' minutes of any emergency, such as heart attacks, strokes, shock and trauma. "In Pakistan, the importance of emergency services is greatly undermined and even in the 'best facilities' it is merely an extension of inpatient departments rather than a speciality itself", he said, adding: "Emergency departments in hospitals needed to be structured on modern clinical guidelines as practice internationally."
He further said that UHS had already introduced, for the first time in Punjab, basic and advanced life support as compulsory courses in final year MBBS and from this year, no medical student would be awarded degree unless he has completed training and got certification in these essential courses prior to his final professional examination.
Professor Mubbashar also asked Dr Bury to launch dual degree master's programme in emergency care with the collaboration between UHS and University College Dublin. The Project Director of Institute of Learning Emergency Medicine (ILEM), Ireland, Dr Khurram Shahzad said on the occasion that international visiting faculty is running a workshop from 16th to 19th May for the emergency staff of Edhi Ambulance Service, Rescue 1122 and students and faculty of affiliated institutions of UHS. He said that all courses were designed and delivered with a hands-on approach. The students would be encouraged to practice and demonstrate both the skills and the knowledge necessary to save lives, he said, adding:" The basic objective was to prevent death during emergencies. "He further said that doctors still seemed to be expected to learn resuscitation skills in the clinical settings, when there was a little opportunity to correct poor techniques. Once students became house officers, their time for training was limited, he added. "Given this situation and the fact that many junior doctors are not competent in carrying out effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), training in basic and advanced life support should become standardised and mandatory component of undergraduate curriculum in medical colleges," he opined.
Dr Khurram Shahzad further said that faculties for courses, such as Cardiac First Responder (CFR), Emergency First Responder (EFR) and other accredited courses were being developed in Pakistan and AJ&K. The ILEM faculties had so far trained 4,890 professionals all over the country. All these trainings are supervised by visiting international faculty; he said adding that ILEM had developed first Edhi Ambulance Services School and faculty for all Emergency Services Academy Rescue 1122. He also said that AJ&K government had made these courses mandatory for all health workers from Grade 1 to 19.