Medicolegal Aspects during Mass Casualty Due to Road Traffic Accidents in the Era of Covid: A Tertiary Care Institutional Experience

Abstract

Background: In March 2020, the world health organization declared COVID-19 a world wide pandemic.Countries introduced public health measures to contain and reduce its spread. The effect of mandated societallockdown to reduce the transmission of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on road traffic accidents is notknown. For this we performed an in-depth analysis singdata of emergency and trauma centre UPUMS, Saifai.As most of the manpower was involved in managing Covid patients directly or indirectly, it was a challenge tomanage these mass casualty patients who require intensive care as well as Medicolegal documentation , recordkeeping , Consent for life saving procedures in absence of Relatives.Materials and Methods: We reviewed data on total 2876 road traffic accident records in UPUMS, Saifai fromJanuary 1, 2020 through September 30, 2020. We treated March 20th as the first day of mandated societal lock downand 1st July as the first day of re-opening.Results: We have found that the reis increase in road traffic accidents resulting in serious or fatal injuries duringlockdown and post-lockdown period. There was increased Medicolegal burden in spite of the decreased medicalresources, manpower as most of manpower and resources were being utilized for covid patients.Conclusion: Road traffic accidents are a prominent contributor to hospitalization and may negatively impact theexisting hospital resources directed towards COVID-19.