Are Karachis emergency medical response systems adequately prepared?
Department of Surgery, Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center, Karachi, Pakistan. OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy and preparedness of the pre-hospital and hospital emergency medical systems and post graduate trainees in the city to deal with a massive terrorist strike. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of postgraduate trainees was conducted at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center and Civil Hospital Karachi from 21st July 2007 to 24th July 2007, to evaluate the preparedness and self identified deficiencies of doctors involved in massive trauma casualty management. To assess the pre-hospital care in Karachi, structured telephonic interviews were conducted of administrators of two private run charity based ambulance services. RESULTS: Out of the 90 respondents questioned regarding a self assessment of their training, only 3 (3.3%) of them were confident about their management of bomb blast victims. Eighty-seven (96.6%) of the respondents felt they required some further training (44.4%) or co
