Stand-alone AIIMS trauma centre to reopen for trauma cases this weekend

The stand-alone trauma centre of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) will reopen this weekend for trauma patients, 15 months after it was converted to a dedicated coronavirus disease (Covid-19) treatment facility. The 364-bed centre will take in both Covid-19 and trauma patients, with separate wards, operation theatres, and lifts for both.

This comes after the resident doctors’ association of the hospital wrote to the administration stating that there was hardly any Covid-19 patient at the centre with a dip in cases in the city, while a significant number of trauma patients were unable to get beds. Only 25 to 35 Covid-19 patients were admitted at any given time at the centre over the past one month, according to resident doctors.

The emergency trauma cases, however, will continue to be treated in the old out-patient department block that was converted to the trauma emergency in the main hospital during the pandemic. Only “relatively stable” patients will be admitted to the wards in the stand-alone centre.

“Both Covid and non-Covid services will be run from trauma centre. The trauma emergency for the time being will be run from the main hospital and all emergency operations will be done in the main hospital. There will be no direct admissions at JNNATC (Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre),” said a communication from AIIMS trauma chief Dr Rajesh Malhotra. The decision was taken after a meeting with the AIIMS director on Tuesday.

Three floors of the eight storey building, including the ground floor, and three of seven operation theatres will be utilised for treatment of trauma patients, the communication further said.

The resident doctors, however, said these facilities may not be enough as there was a dip of less than 30% in trauma cases even during the pandemic and the lockdowns and restrictions since last year.

“Initially, it was thought that the number of trauma cases will go down when people do not step out due to Covid-19, but over the last two waves, we have seen that it is just the pattern that changes. We start seeing more cases of children falling off roofs or traumas sustained at home due to rising frustrations,” said a representative of the resident doctors association, not wishing to be named.

“The key for managing any trauma case is the emergency, operation theatre, and the ICU, all three of which continue to be in the main AIIMS. Only stable patients will be in the trauma centre; what this means is that if there is another surge they will be moved out.

“The number of trauma cases did not really go down – there was only a 30% reduction through the year even though there was a sharp dip during the complete lockdown – but the number of beds and other facilities have been reduced significantly,” the doctor said.

There were 264 beds, including 38 ICU beds, available to trauma patients at the stand-alone centre, whereas only 95 beds, including 18 ICU beds, were available at the main AIIMS for trauma cases.

“We have had to transfer out patients, treat patients on stretchers. Yet the building continues to be utilised for Covid-19 service instead of the new burns treatment building, ophthalmic centre, and dental centre that do not see too many cases when Covid-19 increases,” the doctor said.