TTD needs to run trauma care facility

Tirupati: The Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has no facility to treat pilgrims who meet with accidents en route to the temple town except referring them to the emergency wing of the Ruia Hospital.

Will the rule to set up a state-of-the-art trauma care facility here not applicable to the TTD given the fact that lakhs of devotees throng the temple town to have darshan of Lord Balaji?

Chittoor district is prone to many road accidents. In case of a road accident taking place anywhere in the region between Chittoor and Puttur, the victims are brought to the Ruia Hospital.

The pilgrims wonder whether the TTD is not in a position to run a trauma care facility. The question, “to what extent the TTD is accountable to millions of devotees thronging the place and making offerings to the hundi?” evokes no response at all from its officials, it has been alleged.

The victims of road accidents which take place in Chittoor district are mostly from other places with a majority of them being tourists.

The accidents are rendering some disabled, while sniffing out lives of some others. There are yet some who get injured in some other accidents.

In case of injuries because of road accidents, the TTD has a primary health care facility at Tirumala.
A central hospital under its control is meant for the TTD staff. Treatment at the famous Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) is not free.

People of Andhra Pradesh might avail cashless treatment with the help of Aarogyasri card. But, the road accident victims from other states have to shell down money to avail medical care.

The Ruia Hospital is the only choice, but it lacked in many amenities. The referral hospital extends free treatment, but the survival of patients depends on luck factor, it is alleged.

According to Ruia Hospital RMO Dr Srihari, the hospital has an average trauma care centre. The doctors at the hospital first prescribe to patients to get a CT-Scan get done. Generally, the patients are new to the temple town and often find themselves having not much money on them.

Moreover, they are in a state of trauma. The CT-Scan machine reportedly became dysfunctional in spite of having modern machine, an operator and a technician to supervise its functioning. Therefore, the treatment the patient is getting is empirical. There is none in the hospital to give injury-specific treatment to the patient. For the past six months it is the situation at the so-called famed hospital.

The service of the cardio-thoracic surgeons is not available though in case of poly-trauma cases, services of these surgeons are crucial. Therefore, the hospital is forced to refer patients to other hospitals. Many precious lives are being lost for want of money as the patients have to wait till their attendants come to their rescue.

Either the state government or the TTD seems to have paid no attention to the proposals sent to them for running a full-scale CT-Surgery department at the hospital.

The TTD with thousands of crores of revenue is accused of not being able to rise to the occasion to treat trauma patients, who sustained injuries in the district during the course of journey to Tirumala or their returning home.

Can’t the TTD at least run a trauma care section in the famed SVIMS? Perhaps, the TTD thinks providing amenities to tourists would mean taking care of their accommodation and maintaining of queue system efficiently. The TTD appears to have been unfazed by the number of road accidents taking place in Chittoor district.

The local people, elected people’s representatives and people’s organisations have been advocating that the TTD’s attitude should undergo a sea-change and provide trauma care facilities to those who have been injured in the vicinity of the temple town.

Dr Krishna Prasanti and a resident of Tirupati Naveen Kumar Reddy have been appealing to the TTD to at least run a trauma care section in the emergency wing of the Ruia Hospital or run a trauma care center in the SVIMS.

By:K M Mohan