Despite the advances in imaging and medical equipment in India, the country still experiences a 30-day trauma mortality rate twice that of patients in high income countries, with high mortality rates related to self-harm, falls and road injuries.
Recognising the need for more comprehensive trauma care in India, WFSA in partnership with Masimo successfully established and delivered the first Primary Trauma Care (PTC) course in Telangana, Hyderabad in November 2019 as part of the Safe Anaesthesia ASAP partnership.
The four day PTC course aims to build the capacity of healthcare professionals systematically while considering the clinical needs of severely injured patients. The course was held at Continental Hospital in Hyderabad, renowned for having some of India’s most advanced emergency medicine and trauma facilities and high-quality training programmes.
The workshop was delivered in a 2-1-2 format which involves a course for senior clinicians, followed by an instructor’s course and then a final course for medical students taught by the newly trained instructors. Through training local staff members, sound anaesthesia knowledge can be disseminated widely in India. In total 20 physicians, 20 medical students and 10 PTC Instructors were trained as part of the PTC course.
Dr Varun Sangle, a UK based A&E and ICU physician, who taught on the course, said, “The course provided an interesting perspective on health (trauma) care in austere settings which gave me an alternative point of view. It was both challenging and rewarding teaching candidates for whom English was not necessarily the first language”.
As well as strengthening the knowledge of the participants, the course has also had a profound impact on those teaching it, as Dr Sangle said,“The course was a great experience and very well received. I found it enabled me to develop my own knowledge and teaching skills while delivering effective practical training to meet a clear need.”
The WFSA/Masimo partnership is building the capacity of anaesthesia providers in India by delivering a comprehensive training programme which along with the PTC training includes Safer Anaesthesia From Education (SAFE), Essential Pain Management (EPM) and Vital Anaesthesia Simulation Training (VAST) courses. In the past three years training has been provided to 443 anaesthesiologists, 137 instructors/trainers and 209 nurses and medical students in topics such as paediatric anaesthesia, obstetric anaesthesia and non-technical skills.
The sustainable design of the PTC training courses means that the instructors who were trained through the inaugural course will be able to run additional PTC courses throughout 2020 and beyond. The aim is for this first wave of PCT graduates to continue to provide high-quality anaesthesia courses throughout the country, further strengthening anaesthesia capacity across the country.
