The Delhi Orthopaedic Association on July 8 organised a day-long conference here during which experts from across India tried to chalk out guidelines to ensure better treatment and care to people injured in mishaps.

Trauma claims a life in India every 2 minutes. In medical parlance, it refers to physical injury but is not confined to only injuries suffered in road accidents. According to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, more than 1.5 lakh people die every year in road accidents, which means 17 people die every hour. Another five lakh are severely injured in road crashes, it said.

The number of people killed in road accidents in India is the second-highest globally. Road crashes account for more than 44 per cent of all un-natural accidental deaths in India and 51 per cent of those killed are between 18 and 30 years of age. According to the Indian Society For Trauma And Acute Care, 22.8 per cent of all trauma is on account of transport-related injuries. "An attempt to measure catastrophic levels of health expenditure on accidental injuries, road traffic accidents, and falls, finds that the burden of out-of-pocket expenditure is the highest for such injuries.

"The financial burden is unusually high for poorer households in rural areas, and those seeking treatment at private health facilities with no health insurance. Public health facilities for trauma care and health coverage for low-income groups could help these vulnerable households," Raju Vaishya, scientific chairman of the MIDCON-2018, said.

According to the association chief Ramesh Kumar, the theme of the conference is 'prevention of complications in trauma care". The conference covered the management of fractures of all parts of the body, with nine sessions of one hour each per segment. The faculty includes experts from the UK, India, and local experts from Delhi. More than 250 surgeons attended the conference from Delhi and other parts of India.