With a view to updating the knowledge of Pakistani health professionals in 'emergency medicine and immediate care', an eight-member Irish delegation from Centre for Emergency Medical Science, University College Dublin (UCD) reached here Friday to conduct courses at University of Health Sciences from October 22 to 27.
During their one-week stay here, the Irish team will run a series of three workshops to develop an instructor faculty in Pakistan. The team is led by UCD course director Professor Gerard Bury. Others members of the team are: Macartan Hughes, Director National Ambulance Service College Dublin, Mark Dixon, Director of Training, Academy of Emergency Medical Education, University of Limerick, Brian Bruno, UCD advanced paramedic and tutor, Nick Breen, college lecturer, Mairead Egan, UCD manager, Dr Farooq Butt, president Disaster Relief by Irish and Pakistani (DRIP) and Dr Khurram Shahzad, project director, Institute of Learning Emergency Medicine (ILEM), Ireland.
Talking to the members of Irish delegation, UHS vice-chancellor, Professor Malik Hussain Mubbashar said that patient's immediate care is a field in medicine which needs to be standardised as most of lives are lost in the 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 in itself," he said, adding, "Emergency departments in hospitals needed to be structured on modern clinical guidelines as practised 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 in all its affiliated colleges 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.
Project Director of Institute of Learning Emergency Medicine (ILEM), Ireland, Dr Khurram Shahzad said that international visiting faculty would run workshops on "Immediate Care Cardiac and Trauma" for the emergency staff of Edhi Ambulance Services, 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 participants 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 from emergencies."
He further said that doctors still seem to expect to learn resuscitation skills in the clinical settings, when there was little opportunity to correct poor techniques. Once students became house officers, their time for training is limited. "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.
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