Focus on golden hour - DA
2004-12-20 08:51
Johannesburg - Emergency treatment during the golden hour - the first hour after an accident - can save many lives, the Democratic Alliance transport spokesperson said on Sunday.
Stuart Farrow was requesting government to assess and improve emergency services in the country.
"A study by the Health Systems Trust shows that it takes on average almost two hours for an ambulance to reach emergency cases... accident experts emphasise that getting emergency treatment within the first hour, the so-called "golden hour," has a major effect on saving the lives of accident victims," Farrow said in a statement.
He said South Africa had more than twice the percentage of deaths at the scene of an accident than more developed countries, because victims were not attended to fast enough.
"I will further call for an urgent allocation of the necessary additional resources to save the lives of trauma victims over this holiday period," Farrow said.
He was responding to reports on Sunday that emergency services were under-funded, understaffed, and poorly equipped.
- SAPA