People involved in emergency care in Pakistan are witnessing the change in the emergency department working, that is refreshing and much needed. This upcoming virtual conference in Emergency Medicine is part of the journey that started in early part of the century. It shows the work of very dedicated and concerned people to establish training in Emergency Medicine and this way improve the emergency care delivery to all citizens of Pakistan.
The struggle for Emergency Medicine was protracted and exhausting and it is still going on. The challenges still stand for the majority of the hospitals in Pakistan, yet the improvement is also evident and the mindset has been shaken. From nowhere to be found to more than 10 institutions for the training in about 10 years is actually and great achievement.
What is the expectations and goals of all those who work in Emergency Departments across Pakistan? In 2015 we came up with a slogan. “A trained emergency physician in each Emergency Department of Pakistan by the year 2025”.
Besides this goal our expectation was many folds.
1. Improved pre-hospital care.
2. Appropriate ED organization and supervision.
3. Triaging the patients. It ensures safety of the most sick.
4. Coordination between all stakeholders caring for the patients.
Just to name a few.
The past 10 years proved vital for very obvious reasons. No one had real understanding about the scope of work and it took a lot of interactions, classes, conferences and teaching & training that now everyone understands the role of organized Emergency Department. Still we come across plenty of situations where we are faced with situations of uncooperative behavior, lack of understanding and conflict in the roles.
Ongoing interactions in all forms help in improving the care and will result in meeting our goals. These interactions include conferences and seminars and also mutual rotation of either Emergency Medicine resident to other areas of the hospital or other hospitals, or residents of other specialties or other hospitals coming to your Emergency Department. Both instances create an opportunity for us to improve understanding of people about emergency care under trained Emergency Department.
This virtual conference of Pakistan Society of Emergency Medicine (PSEM) is expected to have a great impact because it is going to involve key stake holders and the people working on ground. It will also involve hospitals and universities to let the medical students and budding doctors have the proper understanding regarding Emergency Medicine as well as Emergency Department working. This is extremely crucial as we like people to opt the Emergency Medicine for what it offers to all i.e. team work, rapid action, full spectrum of disease and shift pattern to name a few.
This virtual conference of Pakistan Society of Emergency Medicine (PSEM) will also bring Pakistan to world stage of Emergency Medicine and will result in creating collaboration and collective knowledge base to benefit our patients. Areas of mutual interest will be identified and worked upon. The whole world will benefit and so will we.
We all need to do our best to learn from this experience as well as try our best to use this knowledge for the benefit of all. At all levels we need to be proactive and persistent. We have gathered momentum and attracted the people from far and wide and thus our continued effort will be paid off InshAllah.