Aga Khan University Hospital's 5th Annual Surgical Conference Trauma 'striving for change' was concluded here on Sunday. The closing session of the three-day symposium 'Transforming Tragedy into Change' shed light on emergency and trauma care shortfalls faced specifically in the city of Karachi on a regular basis, and concluded with concrete steps to be taken towards building a progressive improvement of these systems.

The session also announced the launch of 'Rah-e-Amal', a non-profit organization registered in the memory of Amal Umer, a 10 year old child, who was hit by a police bullet while sitting in the back seat of her car and succumbed to her injury when taken to a hospital and denied the medical attention she needed.

Rah-e-Amal aims to advocate prevention of trauma, establishment of standardized, integrated, quality frontline emergency trauma care services and immediate, empathetic medical care for the injured under the Amal Umer Act 2019.

This session was a step towards bridging the gap between frontline emergency healthcare professionals, the civil society and policy makers. Victims of trauma shared their ordeals, Rah-e- Amal trustee's explained their vision and mission and went over the salient points of the Sindh Injured Persons Compulsory Medical Treatment (Amal Umer) Act, 2019, while doctors from both AKU and Indus Hospital presented their research on trauma capacity during this symposium.

A panel discussion took place with panelists Dr. Rizwan Naseer, Dr. Lubna Samad, Dr. Junaid Razzak, Dr. Hasnain Zafar, Dr. Syed Ather Enam, Nargis Asad, Umer Adil and Beenish Umer, where the gap of emergency and trauma care was highlighted and the immediate need for change was stressed with much urgency.