Emergency

Gas Masks Don't Always Fit an Emergency

Before the national anxiety over bioterrorism drives you to buy a gas mask at the nearest army surplus store, take a deep breath and brace yourself for what experts say about them -- most of it is not good. One could never know where the exposure is; you'd have to wear the mask at all times. //Even if you could stand to do that, the risks to your health would probably be higher than the likelihoo...

London Emergency Services Receive Wide Appreciation

The key for a metropolis in coping with a terrorist attack is how fast and co-ordinated// are the cities emergency medical services. Yesterday London witnessed one of the worst terrorist attacks when it was still celebrating the successful 2012 Olympics hosting bid. In the morning rush hours at 8.51 am a bomb explosion took place at Liverpool Street subway station and a call was recei...

WHO declares Tuberculosis – ‘An Emergency’ in Afrca

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Tuberculosis as an emergency in Africa. It is killing more than half a million people every year. WHO Regional // Committee for Africa comprising health ministers from 46 Member States has declared tuberculosis an emergency in the African region. The deaths have quadrupled in the last few years. A resolution was adopted today at the end...

Indian Health Ministry approves sale of Emergency contraceptives as over the counter drug

Emergency contraceptives will be available in pharmacies as over the counter drug with out medical prescription in India, which will enable women to avoid unnecessary pregnancy. The decision was announced// by the Indian Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, on informing the governments decision the minister said, "The step has been taken to enable women to avoid pregnancy in such situations as unpr...

Combination drugs for emergency heart attacks

Professor Zhengmin Chen and his team from Oxford University have found that combining anti-clotting drug Clopidogrel to aspirin to heart attack patients may have more good effect in saving lives compared to single drug medications. //Anti-clotting drugs help in thinning of blood during a heart attack and help in removing clots and do not have any serious side effects of bleeding. Resear...

Emergency Treatment Found Wanting In Anaphylactic Reactions

New findings presented during the Annual Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) in Anaheim stress on the fact that healthcare providers are not well-equipped to deal with anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction that is fatal if not treated immediately//. The researchers say that insect bites are almost always responsible for anaphylaxis and that heal...

Men under 50 susceptible to suicide after discharge from emergency

A recent study has found that men under 50 are more likely to die from suicide than any other cause in the 30 days after being discharged. // A study of public hospital emergency departments in Perth conducted on 270, 000 patients aged 15 and over attending the emergency departments of seven Perth hospitals between June 2000 and July 2003 found nine men aged under 50 committed suicide wi...

Chlamydia Screening To Be Offered With Emergency Contraception

In an effort to identify and treat a potentially huge unknown population at risk of untreated Chlamydia, women requesting emergency contraception will be offered fast-tracked // screening for the disease. Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by a tiny bacterium, Chlamydia trachomatis, can lead to infertility, and is very common among young adults and teenagers. Howev...

Lack of facilities in emergency rooms, warn Canadian nurses!

The nurses in Canada are raising a hue and cry over inadequate facilities in emergency rooms. According to them the ER at provincial hospitals// are ill-equipped and many a times patients have to be treated in the galleries. At a meeting of the PHSA in Vancouver the B.C. Nurses' Union president Deb McPherson said that the status quo is unacceptable. According to her a significant number...

Apollo And Stanford Team To Train Emergency Medical Technicians

The collaboration between Apollo Hospitals and the Stanford Emergency Medicine International, US, would be marked by a launch of a first-ever international programme for training of emergency medical technicians in India//. The one-year full time programme would be conducted at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad. Candidates who have passed Intermediate or an equivalent examination are eligible...

U.K. Government to reduce waiting time of patients for non-emergency surgery

United Kingdom Ministry is planning for reduction of waiting time spent by patients before they had there surgery. The Government is planning to reduce the non-emergency surgery time to less // than 18 weeks from time of admission to NHS. Government is hoping the project will be made completed by the year 2008. Patients wait for long time for initial appointment with the doctor, for getting dia...

Ambulance queue before hospitals with emergency patients

Ambulance staffs are not happy, as patients in ambulance have to wait long before they were given treatment, which increases the risk of death in these patients.// Ambulance staff workers are seriously agitating against this issue and want doctors to act immediately to these patients to avoid serious effects. Though the trust feel that the actions of the doctors are not intentional but...

Mumbai To Get Emergency Ambulance Service

An ambulance service will be established in the Indian city of Mumbai by ten Indian American doctors with the object of providing patients with critical help.// The project is estimated at US$ 3 million, and its nerve center will be the Hinduja Hospital. The annual recurring cost of the project will be Rs.40 million. Seven other hospitals and four medical colleges will initially be a...

Lancet Urges To Allow Emergency Contraception Drug As An OTC

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority is under pressure as it has been urged to make emergency contraception drug as an over-the counter drug//. Andrew von Eschenbach, acting Commissioner of the FDA has been urged to take an independent, non-biased decision on Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc's bid to sell its morning after pill or Plan B without a medical prescription. Plan...

Extravagant Pay For Emergency Department Head Of Caboolture Hospital

It has been proposed by Caboolture Hospital management to offer a pay of nearly $500,000 to the head of its emergency department //. In response to the above proposal, the Queensland Opposition has described it as being extravagant and unconscionable. The popular Aspen Medical Group had advertised for the post of a new director for the emergency medicine department, with an attractive...

Andhra Junior Doctors Call Off Strike Partially; To Attend Emergency cases

The striking junior doctors in Andhra Pradesh have decided to partially call off their 10-day strike and attend to emergency cases on Saturday. //Earlier in the day, about 4,000 junior doctors staged a dharna in front of the Raj Bhavan and blocked the road in front of the governor's residence. The junior doctors from nine hospitals across Andhra Pradesh are on strike since the past 10...

Nursing Home Residents Receive Appropriate Emergency Care Despite Poor Funds

Despite the widespread belief that residents of nursing home or hostel are transferred to emergency departments in hospitals, //it has been found that aged care homes effectively attend to the health care needs of the residents, even in the presence of poor funds. A new study has now revealed that the proportion of such transfers is relatively low. The study conducted by researchers at...

New Delhi to Host Conference on Accident & Emergency Medical Treatment

New York. A three day conference on Accident and Emergency Medicine is being held in Delhi later this year with the help of Association of Indian-American and US doctors.// The objective of this conference is to impress upon the government and medical institutions the need for specialty faculties for emergency medicine and disaster preparedness. At a function held in the Indian Consula...

New Program Reduces Nursing Home Residents Out Of Emergency Care

According to a recent study conducted by the Canadian researchers it was found that nursing home residents who undergo a training reduced their likelihood to land in emergency care//. The program trained them to monitor and treat pneumonia. These people are trained in a similar way as those specially trained nurses. This has reduced the incoming of patients in to the emergency care by...

Victoria Hospital In Bangalore is Lacking Beds In Emergency wards

It sadly been noticed that patients who come for emergency treatment at Victoria Hospital in Bangalore were not always assured of immediate attention //. The emergency ward at the hospital is said to be struggling to accommodate cases during mass tragedies owing to lack of beds. This has been further worsened with one of the wings of the casualty ward being under repair from the last four months....

Lack of Proper Emergency Access during the Run Led To the Death of Four Runners

In the Great North Run which was held last year to mark the 25th anniversary led to the death of four competitors. The complaints were that the deaths //were due to the lack of proper medical facilities. The coroner was very confident as this was main reason of their deaths because the victims who died were all physically fit. They died due to over-exertion as they approached the end of the 13.1...

B.C. Government Funds To Initiate Changes in Emergency Rooms

The B.C government has provided $7 million towards development of some of the province's busiest emergency rooms promising some long-awaited changes //. According to the incoming president of the B.C. Medical Association an increase in long-term care beds and acute care beds would help to provide a solution to the existing problems. However opinions differ, with Dr. Margaret M...

US Emergency Rooms ill prepared for Disasters

A new report has revealed that U.S. emergency medical care is stretched to its limit and ill prepared to handle disasters. The need of the hour is to expand capacity//, address special needs of children and improve coordination before and after patients arrive. A series of three reports from the National Academies of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) have pointed out that overcrowde...

Emergency Services To Face The Axe

Patients are put to unnecessary risk due to shortage of staff at the accident and emergency units, doctors warn.// The cutting down of staff in the casualty departments is a move to bail the NHS out of its monetary predicament, claims the British Association for Emergency Medicine (BAEM). Last year, Bristol's South Mead Hospital was converted into a minor injuries unit and...

Increasing Numbers Of Dehydrated New Born Babies Needing Emergency hospital care

Many new mothers are being told not to bottle feed because it will ruin breastfeeding, but an increasing number are being left with babies so dehydrated they need emergency// hospital care. Experts have reported that hundreds of newborn babies suffering from dehydration are being re-admitted to hospital as mothers are being warned not to resort to bottle-feeding. They explain that the...

Emergency Heart Patients Do Better With Invasive Approach

Patients admitted to the hospital for sudden, worsening chest pain or a certain type of heart attack have better outcomes if they undergo early invasive treatment// rather than being treated conservatively, a new review of clinical trials has found. “Available evidence suggests that an early invasive strategy is superior to a conservative strategy,” said lead author Michel Hoenig of t...

Alarming Raise In Illegal Blood Alcohol Levels Among Emergency Patients

According to report that has been published in the Emergency Medicine Journal, a study conducted in an major hospital, the blood// alcohol levels among the patients admitted in emergency care have gone up well above the legal limit, on an average risen to almost 113% in the past 5 years. The report further added that though men more consistently outnumber women, the absolute number...

AAP Urges Families To Create Emergency Disaster Plans

On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is encouraging families, pediatricians and communities to prepare// for potential natural and other disasters to minimize the physical and emotional toll on children. Children are especially vulnerable during and after disasters. The AAP recommends that parents discuss possible disaster plans wi...

Medical intervention , a prominent cause of emergency caesarians

Research by the Royal Women's Hospital has found that the most common cause of emergency caesarians is medically induced labor.// Nearly one-third of the women with induced labor, have ended up undergoing emergency caesarians. The factors enhancing the risk of a C-section were found to be with the first-time mothers. "The message we are taking is to look very carefully at the reasons...

Paucity of specialists sends emergency department on a spin

The Whanganui District Health Board Hospital is experiencing a dearth of specialists, which was confirmed by the Hospital general manager, Sue Capenerhurst.// Mrs. Capenerhurst explained that the hospital will have to put up with the shortfall in obstetricians till end-December as the pediatrician employed for full-time services is currently on leave. The hospital is in the process of...

Cardiac Emergency Therapy Finds Single Medication Effective Vs. Combination Drugs

A study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine led by Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital researchers showed that an// anti-clotting agent called bivalirudin (brand name Angiomax?), when used by itself to treat cardiac emergencies known as acute coronary syndromes (ACS), reduced the risk of major bleeding, a key risk for mortality, by 47 percent co...

Does the Home Medicine Chest Warrant the Emergency Contraceptive Pill?

A reputed sexual healthcare charity seems to suggest that the home medicine chest, which usually includes common medicines//, such as for headache and cold, should also include the emergency contraceptive pill. This advice comes in the wake of the Christmas season where people are often partying to celebrate. The charity has offered such an advice simply because the morning-after-pil...

Indo-American Doctors to Build Emergency Medical System

New Delhi: Indian American physicians will build an emergency medical system in the national capital to help patients reach hospitals within //10 minutes in an emergency and thus reduce fatalities. "In collaboration with the Maharashtra government, we have already set up such a system in Pune. Delhi will soon have the facility," S. Balasubramanium, president of the American Association...

Dummy Emergency Operation Launched

Health officials across UK are participating in a dummy exercise- an emergency operation, should UK be hit// by bird flu pandemic. The preparation may be staged, but the fear is real. Health experts in Britain are wary of a bird flu epidemic hitting the nation and the exercise is meant to train medical and health professionals to handle the situation. Usually bird...

Better Management can Reduce Emergency Room Waiting Times

Senior people at Capital Health are extremely optimistic about the recent changes introduced at hospitals with a view to better management //of emergency care and reduce waiting time for patients. As part of the changes, a plan has been initiated to effectively manage space in the emergency rooms in hospitals. A "bed site manager" is newly designated in the hospital, whose job will be...

EMRI to Expand Emergency Care Services Throughout India

With its emergency health care services available across most of Andhra Pradesh, the Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), an initiative of Satyam Foundation, plans to cover the entire state by the month-end and then expand it throughout the country in the next two years. EMRI, which presently has 500 state-of-the-art ambulances in Andhra Pradesh, is serving a populat...

Emergency Department Strain As Ice Problems Grows

The burden of crystalline methamphetamine ("ice" or "crystal") and other amphetamines onalready stretched// public hospital resources is significant and set to grow, emergency physiciansand drug specialists have warned in the latest Medical Journal of Australia (MJA), prompting anurgent call to beef up health and social drug intervention services. Two new studies have found that a...

Emergency Contraception Does Not Reduce Unintended Pregnancy Rate

The “morning after pill” may be a good option for individual women in crisis, but advance access to emergency contraception is// no antidote for the national problem of unintended pregnancy. Contrary to the fears of critics, the presence of Plan B does not provoke riskier sexual behavior. According to a new review of studies, women who received an advance supply of bi...

Government Delivers On Emergency Medical Training For Rural Doctors

Chair of the AMA Rural Reference Group (AMARRG), Dr David Rivett, today congratulated the Government on relaxing restrictions to the extension of emergency// medical training as part of the Rural and Remote Procedural GPs Program, and providing more support for GPs to participate. Dr Rivett said the Government had included emergency medicine in the original 2005 extension to the prog...

Look Out for ICE in Emergency Situations

ICE is a new concept catching up fast in the West. With the tremendous growth in mobile revolution, large numbers of population carry mobile phones with hundreds of names and numbers stored in its memory but yet nobody, other than the users, know which of these numbers belong to the near and dear. In case they (the mobile users) are involved in an accident or had a heart at...