Pakistan: Course on trauma care leads to improved emergency treatment

Being the biggest and main referral centre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, receives a myriad of patients requiring trauma care every day. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) works with the hospital in a bid to improve its emergency responsiveness.

As part of this, the ICRC offers the Emergency Room Trauma Course with an aim to equip the medical teams with the latest knowledge and skills required for managing trauma in adults, children and pregnant women.

The course, which includes theoretical and practical sessions, trains people to handle both routine and mass casualty incidents. As a result, the hospital has witnessed an improvement in quality of care.

The support is part of the ICRC's health strategy in Pakistan, which is aimed at building the capacity of medical personnel, especially doctors and nurses.

The ICRC has also conducted several "training of trainers" courses that has led to the creation of a national pool of master trainers.

Since 2014, the ICRC has trained 650 medical professionals and conducted more than 30 such courses throughout Pakistan.