UHS, NASC Ireland Sign Agreement for Robust Emergency Services

LAHORE MIRROR — Governor Punjab Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman has said that training of ambulance and hospital staff in emergency care is the need of the hour. For people injured in road accidents and other mishaps, the first few minutes are very important.

The first hour to save life after an accident is the ‘golden hour’. The number of deaths can be greatly reduced if the injured get proper medical assistance until they reach the hospital.

He was speaking at the signing ceremony of the agreement extension document between the University of Health Sciences (UHS) and the National Ambulance Service College (NASC) Dublin, Ireland, here at the Governor House on Saturday.

In the ceremony, Provincial Minister for Specialized Healthcare Professor Javed Akram, Provincial Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Dr. Nasir Jamal, UHS Vice Chancellor Professor Ahsan Waheed Rathore, ex-Chairman Pak Red Crescent Society Dr. Saeed Elahi, NASC Chief Ambulance Officer Dr. McCarten Hughes, NASC Health Service Executive Mr. Desmond Wade, UHS Controller of Examinations Prof. Saqib Mahmood, Registrar Prof. Nadia Naseem, Director Special Initiatives and Course Coordinator Prof. Sarah Ghafoor, Director Medical Education Dr. Khalid Rahim and NASC representative in Pakistan Dr. Farooq Butt was present.

The Punjab governor said that he was personally aware of the importance of medical assistance received before reaching the hospital. He said that he lost his 13-year-old injured son in the ambulance. It was later learned that the son died not of injuries but of not getting proper and timely medical attention, he added.

Appreciating the performance of UHS, Mr. Baligh-ur-Rehman said that the university has been conducting training courses based on clinical skills development to health professionals for the past decade through its Institute of Learning Emergency Medicine (ILEM). “Following the agreement with the National Ambulance Service College, these university courses will also get international accreditation”, he said adding that the varsity was fast becoming a center of excellence in capacity building and imparting professional training to health professionals.

Punjab’s caretaker Minister from Specialized Healthcare Professor Javed Akram said that these university courses had been playing an important role in patient care, delivery of health services and improving the performance of doctors, nurses, paramedics and related workers for the last ten years. Therefore, the scope of these courses had been extended to 85 teaching hospitals of Punjab, he added. He appreciated the role of Irish experts in bringing these courses up to international standards.

UHS VC Professor Ahsan Waheed Rathore said the varsity had started training for capacity building of around 45,000 health professionals including consultants, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and pharmacists currently working in 85 tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospitals of Punjab. He said the clinical staff of these hospitals was being taught 16 different skill development courses.

He added that the training was being imparted by the UHS-ILEM under Phase 2 of an agreement with the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the Punjab Primary & Secondary Healthcare (P&SH) Department. “In Phase 1 of the agreement, the UHS-ILEM conducted 24 skill development courses for the training of 32,000 health professionals in 25 DHQ and 15 THQ hospitals across Punjab from the year 2017 to 2021”, Prof. Rathore said adding that in the second phase, the university had so far trained 10,000 healthcare professionals.

UHS VC informed that the university was currently running simultaneous training sessions in the THQ hospitals on cardiac first response/basic life support (CFR/BLS), communication and interpersonal skills (CIS), emergency obstetrics and neonatal care (EMONC), blood bank policy and procedure, and training of healthcare professionals on medical record documentation (ToMRD).

Professor Rathore added that the university was going to start a two-year diploma course in emergency medicine soon, while in the future, MPhil and PhD degree programmes would also be started in the field.

Later, the agreement document was signed. On behalf of UHS, Vice-Chancellor Professor Ahsan Waheed Rathore, while on behalf of National Ambulance Service College Dublin, Dr. McCarten Hughes signed the agreement. Under the agreement, the two institutions will train Pakistani health workers in life-saving skills and issue certificates jointly.

The National Ambulance College Ireland will also support the development of curricula, training materials and local master trainers for these courses.