A new Department of Emergency Medicine will be set up at Safdarjung and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College (VMMC) campus, said, officials. This step aims to produce specialist doctors in this branch of medicine, they added, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
Soon, the medical college will start an MD course namely, a three-year postgraduate (PG) degree obtained after completing MBBS with a mandatory one-year internship. Further, giving more details, an official told The New Indian Express, "Nine faculty posts have been sanctioned to start the PG programme in emergency medicine. The MD course will be started soon."
"To improve medical care, emphasis is being laid on upgrading big hospitals and starting a separate department of emergency medicine in the medical colleges affiliated with it. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has stated that an emergency medicine department is a necessity and should be opened in medical colleges due to the burgeoning load of patients who require immediate care at health facilities," he added.
Also, once opened, the college will be the third Centre-run institute in Delhi to have a dedicated department for emergency medicine. Earlier this department was first opened at AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) in 2011. Followed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences and its associated Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) but seats for the PG course are yet to be, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
Official estimates suggest that around 15% of patients coming to government hospitals require emergency care. As per an AIIMS and NITI Aayog study, shortage of doctors specialised in an emergency, medicos from other departments like medicine, surgery, orthopaedics and so on are appointed on a rotation basis in emergency wards of most hospitals. The study stated, "Most of the junior resident doctors handle the responsibility of treatment in an emergency."
