Conference To Mark First PTS Anniversary Held

DG Punjab Emergency Service (PES) Dr. Rizwan Naseer convened the District Emergency Officers (DEOs) conference to mark the first anniversary of the Patient Transfer Service (PTS) started by Rescue 1122 on the special directions of the Chief Minister Punjab Shahbez Sharif.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Feb, 2018 ) :DG Punjab Emergency Service (PES) Dr. Rizwan Naseer convened the District Emergency Officers (DEOs) conference to mark the first anniversary of the Patient Transfer Service (PTS) started by Rescue 1122 on the special directions of the Chief Minister Punjab Shahbez Sharif.

Head of operations Ayaz Aslam gave a presentation on the first year performance of Patient Transfer Service (PTS) started by using around 500 ambulances handed over by the health to ensure 24/7 availability of ambulances to facilitate the shifting of emergency/critical patients from lower heath facilities to specialized healthcare hospitals.

More than 205,134 critical patients have been shifted by trained emergency medical technicians to specialized healthcare facilities through a robust mechanism established by Rescue 1122. In order to facilitate the patients and regulate, the PTS ambulances in coordination with public hospitals, ambulance service desks have also been established at DHQ and teaching hospitals all across Punjab.

The meeting was held at Emergency Services Headquarters, here on Saturday. Dr Farhan Khalid Registrar Emergency Services academy, Dr Foaad Shahzad Mirza Deputy Director Human Resource and Development, Ali Hassan Head of Law & Administration, Ayaz Aslam Deputy Director Operations, Irfan Naseer Deputy Director Repair & Maintenance, Ejaz Ahmed Virk Deputy Director Finance, All DEOs of the Punjab and other officers attended the meeting.

The DG Rescue reviewed overall analysis of PTS data and identified that the highest out of district transportation of patients such as 10,367 were made from district Sheikhupura to Lahore whereas, the highest transportation of patients within the district was carried out by district Multan such as 9757.

However, 37,461 patients were transported to specialized/ tertiary care hospitals of Lahore for advance medical treatment and 30,746 in Multan. The data further revealed that 205,134 patients were referred to higher health facilities due to non-availability of facilities for advance treatment that was 84 percent of total patient referrals and some 13 percent because of non-availability of the specialist of the doctor.

Moreover, it was also observed that around 30 percent patients were shifted unnecessarily as specialists were available in shifting hospitals. All district emergency officers recommended that any patient should only be shifted on the approval of DMS and coordination between hospitals.

DG Rescue lauded the contribution of all District Offices and staff of Rescue 1122 for accepting PTS challenge and making it successful. He also emphasized to ensure the monitoring of PTS on daily basis to provide right to professional emergency care to everyone without discrimination.

He also appreciated the efforts of Transport Maintenance Inspectors (TMIs) to resolve the timely repair and maintenance problems of ambulances received from the Health Departments.