Preparedness for Mass Casualties of Road Traffic Crashes in Uganda: Assessing the Surge Capacity of Highway General Hospitals
Health policy dev. (Online)
; 9(1): 17-26, 2011.
Article
in English
| AIM
| ID: biblio-1262637
Responsible library:
CG1.1
ABSTRACT
In Uganda; increase in human and vehicular populations against a non-expanding road infrastructure; breakdown in enforcement of traffic regulations and poor vehicle quality contribute to the high rate of casualties from road traffic crashes on highways; with over 2000 deaths per year. Highway hospitals should be the vanguard of preparedness to manage mass surgical casualties; to minimize road crash mortality. Objectives:
To determine the capacity of Uganda's highway hospitals to manage mass surgical casualties.Methods:
A descriptive; cross-sectional study of emergency surgical services of ten key highway general hospitals.Results:
The hospitals had adequate capacity to manage uncomplicated solitary cases of injury. However; they had severe shortage of essential surgical equipment (9.6of expected). Staffing was poor (64.3of the recommended) and the staff lacked the life-saving surgical skills needed in a frontline hospital. There was perennial shortage of essential supplies e.g. blood; surgical gloves; intravenous fluids; oxygen and medicines. There was inadequate space for emergency surgery and only few staff members reside within easy reach for quick mobilization. Overall surge capacity was rated at below 50of what is required.Conclusion:
Ugandan highway hospitals lack the technical and infrastructural capacity to handle mass casualties resulting from road traffic crashes. Surge capacity is below 50of that required to manage mass casualties.Recommendations:
The key recommendations of this paper are re-organisation of the outpatient departments to cater for mass emergency surgical cases; deployment of qualified surgeons in highway hospitals; training of hospital staff in life-saving surgical skills; targeted supervision of highway hospitals; training of managers in disaster preparedness; and improved funding for highway hospitals. THEME TWO HOSPITALS
Full text:
Available
Index:
AIM (Africa)
Main subject:
General Surgery
/
Patient Care Management
/
Accidents
/
Evaluation Study
/
Mass Casualty Incidents
/
Hospitals
Type of study:
Observational study
Language:
English
Journal:
Health policy dev. (Online)
Year:
2011
Type:
Article
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