KMC conducts Disaster Management Mock Drill

18 January, 2011 07:10:00Anshul Hardikar

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Ambulance used during drill || Photo Courtesy: Tasneem Jivi

Manipal: Kasturba Medical College (KMC) organised a Disaster Management Mock Drill on Jan 16th. The drill was initiated by NABH (National Accreditation for Board of Hospitals and Healthcare) and every hospital undertakes it once a year, although KMC holds it twice a year. The purpose behind the mock drill was to check the preparedness of KMC as a hospital in the event of any disaster.

The Mock Drill started at 9 a.m. at S Chandrashekhar Hostel with all the 30 volunteers from MMMC as patients when an ambulance started shifting them to KMC for immediate assistance. Upon reaching KMC they were immediately shifted to the Emergency Triage (TR) for treatment. The ER had four senior doctors, four PG medical students and two interns for assistance. Further, for the treatment of patients, KMC had divided its doctors into 10 different teams (A to H).

“There were 29 casualities reported out of which three were critical and 16 patients were serious. However, there is a requirement for more telephone lines as the telephone lines were jammed,” said Pulgaonkar, Senior Medical Superitendent of KMC. When asked about the ambulance backup he said, “One driver and one highly qualified doctor who is usually a trauma specialist are there in the ambulance and KMC also has its own Disaster Management Cell in the hospital itself.”

KMC is the only hospital in Manipal and Udupi amongst all the government and private hospitals which conducts this mock drill twice a year to check its preparedness for unforseen and unfortunate instances.

Sub-edited by: Aditya Ramachandran