Public must be educated on handling of accident victims – Dr Kwarteng
The Korle Bu Orthopaedic and Accident Centre is concerned about the handling of accident casualties.
The Medical Officer-in-Charge of the Orthopaedic Centre, Dr. Frederick Kwarteng, noted that the habit of all manner of people besieging accident scenes and manhandling victims needed to be relooked.
Dr Kwarteng expressed these concern while commissioning a GH¢450,000 orthopaedic facility at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
“Handling patients at the site of accident is a concern to us as clinicians because their state when brought to the hospital is also dependent on how they are handled and transported.”
The average number of cases recorded at the Emergency Department of the Orthopedic Center at the Korle Bu Teaching hospital has seen an increase in motor accident casualties from 700 to 800 every quarter since 2012.
Unfortunately, the practice of untrained hands handling such cases has had a huge effect on motor accident casualties.
In most instances, some casualties have lost their lives in the handling process for lack of knowledge.
“We are only hoping that Ghana will develop its ambulance system which will have well-trained paramedics who will do the evacuation from the scene of accident.”
Dr. Kwarteng said increasing the survival chances of motor accident casualties has necessitated the need for nationwide training of people and emergency workers.
Workers of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) will soon embark on a sensitisation programme on the medically correct way of handling motor accident and emergency cases.
“Now we have collaboration with Accra Metropolitan Assembly. The department has thought of having a collaboration with NCCE to have more public education on the handling of accident victims at the scene of accidents.”
Provisional data from the National Road Safety Commission on road traffic accidents in 2017 show that a total of 12, 843 cases of road traffic crashes resulted in 12, 166 injuries and 2,076 deaths.
Ghana Commercial Bank assisted and supported the rehabilitation of Orthopaedic Ward financially.
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