IE: Lack of coordination hurt lifelines during attacks: December 24, 2008

Lack of coordination hurt lifelines during attacks……Dhanya Nair & Shweta Desai

The 26/11 attacks made heroes out of ordinary mortals who fought to save lives. But for Dr Khazim Sayed (of Dial 1298 for Ambulance services), the hero tag holds no meaning. He rescued three seriously injured people, three others with minor injuries and two trauma cases from the Taj hotel. But he is far from happy.

His complaint: he could have saved more lives had there been more co-ordination between fire officials and the police. We got the call at 9:45 pm and reached the spot by 10:15. Only when we reached the spot did we realise it was a hostage situation, says Dr Sayed.

For any kind of disaster, our task is cut out: rescue as many victims as possible and take them to the nearest hospital. We get our instructions from a centralised body. But at the spot, we did not get any specific instructions from one force. We had to take decisions on our own. Had there been more co-ordination, the rescue operation would have been smoother and more lives could have been saved, he says.

His efforts were also impeded by the need to ferry patients from one hospital to another. Several times we had to ferry patients from St.George Hospital to Cama and then to JJ Hospital losing precious time, says Dr Sayed.

This lack of coordination hit numerous other private ambulances, too. They had to face traffic diversion on the second and third days. On the first day, traffic was not an issue. But by November 27 morning, many people were on the streets out of curiosity. We thought we will face traffic snarls. Hence we started using our Omni vans as it is easy to manoeuvre and is well equipped, said Murtaza Mohammad, non-commanding officer from Saifee ambulance services. He adds, We hope the city doesnt see any such attacks but we will certainly be more prepared. We will bring two-three more vans with one doctor and nurse permanently attached. Also, we will have ICU facility in our vans.

A private ambulance service, Topsline agrees there were several bottlenecks during the rescue operation.

Vice-president, Media and Communications, Pradeep Chak feels the need for a powerful disaster management plan and more mock drills. We trained commandos and paramedics carrying out rescue activities. Though the police were helping, a better response would have helped. We need a more powerful disaster management plan.We are also planning more mock drills to deal with emergency situations and upgrade our air ambulance services, said Chak.

The feeling is echoed by the 1298 crew. Last months mock drill helped us greatly. We will have more mock drills now, said Shafi Mather, CEO of Dial 1298 for Ambulance Services.

Ambulances of most civic hospital lack adequate equipment. We just have an oxygen cylinder and a ventilator system. The rest are provided by nearby civic hospitals during crisis situations. We make a call to the medical superintendent, who supplies us with equipment. Most civic hospitals have only an oxygen cylinder in the ambulance, said senior in-charge ambulances, JJ Hospital, D K Salvi. He adds, This might pale in front of the hi-tech private ambulances but we too rescued 33 patients on the first day.

Meanwhile, after much delay, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will finally begin its foolproof ambulance system. The civic administration will have 29 ambulances including 10 cardiac ambulances complete with respirators, doctors and paramedics. The remaining 19 will be of the regular variety.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Kishore Gajbhiye said in the next two months formalities to purchase the 29 ambulances will be complete.