The state of West Bengal has got its first trauma care unit from a private hospital called Ruby General Hospital. The newly inaugurated trauma unit will help to deal with rapidly increasing road traffic accidents in Kolkata. Talking to media after the inauguration, chairman and managing director of the hospital, Kamal K. Dutta stated that about 126 cases of road mishaps had taken place in Kolkata over the last one month.  According to him, most of the deaths from road accidents can be prevented if the victims are attended on time.

 

Dutta revealed that majority of the road accident victims die during the 'Golden Hour'. The Golden Hour signifies the time period of one hour in which the lives of a majority of critically injured trauma patients can be saved if definite surgical intervention is provided. The Ruby hospital TCU has been set up at the accident-prone zone near EM Bypass in Kolkata. There are 15 trauma surgeons in the TCU for immediate care of the injured trauma patients. The new TCU is capable of executing all types of major surgeries including general, neuro and plastic surgeries.

 

The plan to set up the TCU at accident-prone areas was taken to reduce the time to reach hospital. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted that by 2020, India may experience 147 percent increase in road traffic accident deaths if proper steps are not taken to improve the services.