Motorcyclists put extra burden on allied hospitals

Rawalpindi
Like every year, this year too, accident and emergency departments of the three allied hospitals received extraordinary burden of victims of road accidents during the three days of Eidul Fitr, the majority of which were due to motorcyclists’ over-speeding or their wheelie performance.
Data collected by ‘The News’ on Tuesday reveals that Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Holy Family Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital received a total of 843 cases of road accidents from the first day of Eid to the morning on Tuesday.
The maximum number of road accident cases was reported at BBH where 523 victims of road accidents were taken in three days. The HFH received 235 cases while as many as 85 cases of road accidents were taken to the DHQ Hospital on Eid days. Majority of cases were due to involvement of motorcyclists.
Apart from receiving a number of motorcyclists with serious injuries, the BBH received many victims, the passers-by who were hit by motorcyclists, said Medical Superintendent at BBH Dr. Asif Qadir Mir while talking to ‘The News’.
He added that not less than 70 per cent of the road accidents reported on festivals like Eid are due to involvement of motorcyclists and the same is the case on this Eid.
It is important that Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad has received well over 200 cases of road accidents from ‘Chand Raat’ to the third day of Eid, majority of which were motorcyclists or the passers-by hit by them. The PIMS received 30 patients in serious condition and had to admit as many as 60 road accident victims. Strict checking of licences, helmets and over speeding is a must to avoid road accidents on festivals, said PIMS spokesman Dr. Wasim Ahmed Khawaja while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.
‘The News’ has learnt that the motorcyclists while over speeding or performing the stunt of riding motorcycles with the front wheels off the road (wheelie) caused a good number of accidents putting their own as well as people’s lives at stake.
Many health experts have repeatedly expressed to ‘The News’ that the wheelie performers need psychological treatment as due to their ‘non-sense’ activities, the government has to spend a huge budget for their treatment after accidents and the doctors at public sector hospitals have to be on high alert due to their follies.
According to health experts, one victim like that of wheelie performer with poly trauma, multiple injuries, costs not less than Rs2000 to hospital in emergency for immediate treatment and this cost does not include labour of the staff serving at the hospital while the cost for a patient is serious condition is much more higher than that after admission.
Health experts and senior citizens are of the view that the concerned authorities should give serious attention to the matter to save additional expenses, public sector hospitals have to bear and to give direction to the talent in youth.
According to Head of the Institute of Psychiatry & WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health at BBH Professor Dr. Fareed Aslam Minhas, the motorcyclists performing ‘circus’ on busy roads actually seek attention of the public around them and they are doing this mainly because of their frustration.
He is of the view that like motorcyclists need counselling and to avoid horrible consequences of the activity, youth should be educated through talk shows and workshops which can be arranged by the concerned departments with the help of psychiatrists.