Abstract
Emergency Medical Service System(EMSS) is a specialty in which time is critical. Broadly, EMSS consists of pre-hospital care (synonyms, out of hospital care), emergency medical services and in-hospital care (popularly called emergency medicine). Dynamic as it is, EMSS is fast changing throughout the world. It may be in its infancy in India but change is imminent and can be perceived in many states and union territories where the pre-hospital care is becoming organized; life-support ambulances can be visualized on the roads. Medical Council of India's recent stand by permitting universities to start the MD course in Emergency Medicine and documenting the minimum standard requirements regarding infrastructure & manpower for recognition are steps in the right direction. JMS 2012;15(2):101-105
Highlights
Burden of Emergencies shows an increasing trend globally and nationally
Among the Asian countries Singapore's EMS service is run by the SCDF (Singapore Civil Defense Force), which currently operates 46 ambulances based in 15 fire stations and 14 satellite stations in a single tier system
Emergency ambulance patients are delivered to 7 major public hospitals in the country that are equipped with modern Emergency Departments(ED)
Summary
Pre-hospital care in India presented a bleak scenario in the recent past. In India in-hospital emergency care is usually provided in crowded emergency departments, called casualties in the public hospitals. The patients are received, assessed and managed by the most junior doctors called junior residents or general duty medical officers, in teaching hospitals postgraduate senior residents of medicine or surgery are posted in the emergency room. In 2006, the Law Commission looked into the issue, and from a comparative study of the legislations in other countries (Emergency Medical Treatment and Labour Act: EMTALA and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act: COBRA of USA.) suggested a legal right to emergency medical care, reiterating that concerns like legal formalities, monetary considerations or even the infrastructure restraints of the institutions should not stand in the way of providing basic and emergency medical treatment.[13] Despite the very unambiguous reiteration of the right to emergency health care by the Courts, the legal framework has not been developed sufficiently to give effect to this right
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