PESHAWAR: The health department is devising a strategy to strengthen coordination among different departments to ensure effective response to disasters and save lives by minimising the quantum of mortalities.

“We have decided to cement the synergy of provincial response in the wake of disasters. The department has held meeting with all stakeholders to get their feedback on lessons learnt from the recent blast at Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines,” Health Secretary Shahidullah Khan told Dawn.

According to him, the recent attack highlights areas of further cooperation to devise a robust strategy in case of mass emergencies.

Official says coordination among departments will ensure effective response to natural and man-made calamities

He said that a province-wide strategy was being devised to save lives of injured people and dispatch the dead bodies for autopsies directly from the scene of disaster to lessen burden on hospitals. He said that the strategy covered natural and man-made disasters including bomb blasts, suicide attacks, earthquakes and floods etc.

Mr Khan said that the respective district health officer (DHO) would be present at the site of disaster to refer victims to hospitals and dead bodies to mortuaries.

“This will not only save precious lives but wouldn’t put unnecessary burden on hospitals as the injured people would be referred to the respective wards in different hospitals,” he added.

He said that the DHO and his team would guide the Rescue 1122 to transport patients to hospitals after bandaging their wounds because bleeding could cause death. Similarly, the regional blood transfusion centre would provide blood to the needy people to save lives, he said.

The health secretary said that the DHO would make arrangements to ensure deployment of trained staff at the site of disaster and would depute health professionals from other health facilities in the same district to the hospital where patients would be shifted.

He said that all the injured and dead ones were shifted to the nearby Lady Reading Hospital after last week’s blast which created huge rush there. Later, dead bodies were shifted to mortuaries at Khyber Medical College and some wounded people were shifted to other hospitals for specialised services, he said.

Prof Tahmeedullah, the director of Burn and Plastic Surgery Centre, who has been appointed as focal person for trauma management, told Dawn that the attempt of health department to ensure coordinated response to disasters was meant to transport affected people from the sites of occurrence to relevant hospitals after giving them first aid on the spot.

“We need to give first aid to the people to stop bleeding and manage those having respiratory issues due to damage to throat and lungs before shifting them to hospitals. There will be a checklist with the rescuers, who will be making referrals to the hospitals for immediate management,” he said.

Prof Tahmeed said that the initial time of the attack was very critical and health department wanted to ensure immediate response to save lives of people and minimise losses.

“There will be follow-up meetings among the stakeholders, not only to devise a strategy for Peshawar but also for other districts to minimise mortalities during natural and man-made calamities,” he said. He said that after the attack, a few people with minor burns were sifted to Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit where they were managed. He added that under the new strategy, people requiring care for burns would be shifted directly to burn centre.

“We have also requested the health department to ask the district level hospitals not to refer minor burn cases to Peshawar. The hospitals can send people with 30 per cent or more burns to Peshawar,” said Prof Tahmeed.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2023