As of today
while the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the need for medical personnel to
recover and treat Covid-19 patients is very high. Meanwhile, traffic accidents
continue to occur with high intensity.
The
availability of medical personnel is important. While the hospital was hectic
handling the Covid-19 pandemic, the hospital shall respond to an emergency call
to help the victims of traffic accidents.
Considering
the above situation, it can be predicted that:
1.
Availability of paramedics
2.
Readiness of paramedics to carry out emergency response
3.
Paramedic fitness, between being alert for the Covid-19 pandemic and traffic
accidents.
Seeing that
the Indonesia covid-19 pandemic has had ups and downs conditions, on the other
hand, traffic accidents statistics have claimed the loss of lives is between 6-8
people in a day as nationwide.
Therefore,
it is important and needs to be paid attention to monitor and maintain the
readiness of paramedics without having to sacrifice the physical fitness of
fatigued paramedics while continuing to struggle to handle the covid-19
pandemic.
An
interesting article that happened in several countries, how paramedics are
physically and mentally exhausted, What It's Like to Be a Paramedic - The Atlantic.
WHO through
the Decade of Action program, has reviewed that post-traffic accident events are
also critical as the first response of life-saving.
Reviewing
“Health System and Disaster published by Gadjah Mada University in 2011” and
“EMS Emergency Response and Readiness Assessment (EIRRA) published by NASEMSO
Highway Mass Casualty Readiness Project between the United States and Mexico
governments in 2012”.
As mentioned
in the books, it is stated that:
1. The need for paramedical readiness
in number, physically, and life-saving equipment.
2. The need
to assess the allocation of traffic accident emergency responders (readiness zone)
based on time, road access to the traffic accident scene, and available
facilities to conduct life-threatening treatment.
3. It is
important for the medical team that carries out the emergency response, to
understand the risks at the location, both the risks to paramedics and victims
of traffic accidents.
4. Good communication between paramedics and field officers, to
determine a good and appropriate way to remove the victims from the vehicle to
the safe area.
5. Adequate ambulance that can evacuate to the hospital, do the
stabilization and conduct the medical procedure in an ambulance.
6. Accessibility to access the traffic accident scene on time and recover the
victims to the capable hospital for life-threatening treatment.
As of today,
for both the covid-19 pandemic and traffic accidents, conducting medical
emergencies response is important. Therefore, several critical points need to
be focus on:
1.
Readiness of medical personnel.
2.
Readiness facility.
3. Healthiness
of medical personnel.
4.
Understanding of traffic accident emergency response.
5.
Preparedness for traffic accident emergency response.