PESHAWAR, July 2: Doctors have expressed their concern over the lack of proper emergency medical services at health-care facilities and have urged the government to come up with concrete plans to improve emergency health-care situation in the country.

They were speaking at a workshop entitled “Emergency preparedness and humanitarian assistance” organized by the ministry of health, Islamabad in collaboration with the WHO at the Khyber Medical College here on Wednesday.

Participants on the occasion said that the seriously injured persons, particularly victims of traffic accidents, were at a risk of dying of simple injuries due to inadequate transportation facilities.

They stressed the need for capacity building of the health personnel, including doctors, paramedics and nurses.

Similarly, insufficient medical supplies, blood bank management, enactment of laws, safe water distribution, check on food quality, integration of public and private outlets, multi- sectoral training system and referral system needed to be upgraded, the doctors said.

Other reason for poor emergency aid was the lack of first aid skills in medical and paramedical staff and police personnel, they added.

The participants said that the policy makers were also not aware of the importance of emergency aid.

It was of great importance that the government involve the politicians,  parliamentarians, Nazims and community leaders in the process of imparting medical education, they said.

The federal government was also flayed by the doctors for its failure to develop an integrated national policy on emergency services.

There was a need to develop a policy that could make the health personnel accountable for negligence, the doctors said.

The participants of the workshop demanded that a full-time department be established at the ministry of health so that a system for catering to emergency patients could be developed at the provincial, districts and tehsil levels.

Separate cadres for emergency treatment of the patients should be established at the hospitals to ensure specialized health-care services to the patients, the doctors said.

Those who addressed the workshop included, Dr Suhail Sahibzada,  Dr Munir Abro, Jamshaid Qureshi, Dr M Dilsoz, Dr Said Akbar, Dr Naik Dad Afridi and Dr Quaid Saeed.