Quetta: Medical Emergency Response Centers (MERC) have responded to 754 highway accidents in the last three months, revealed the data released by Peoples Primary Health Care Initiatives (PPHI).
Rescue workers of MERC attended and provided first aid to 1,083 injured people. The highest number of road accidents were reported in the Baghbana area where 261 people were injured in 197 incidents, where the MERC team rescued and provided them first aid.
Read also: Balochistan’s Highway Rescuers Ready to Save Lives
The Chief Executive Officer (COEC) PPHI Balochistan Aziz Jamali said that MERC teams are rescuing highway accident victims, stabilizing them, giving them first aid services on-site and in MERC Centers on N-25 Balochistan. He said we are facing issues in controlling on spot death toll due to the unavailability of preventive measures such as control on traffic speed.
The government of Balochistan has established MERCs and successfully reduced the death toll during road accidents. In the next phase, PPHI is planning to develop a platform of all stakeholders and it will focus on highway accident prevention as the most important factor to make our national highways safer and accident-free.
MERC project was approved at a total cost of 3.41 billion and comprises of 25 emergency centers on 8 highways of Balochistan. There are two EMTs, two ambulances, one fire brigade and the other supporting staff in every emergency center. This is the first project of its kind in Pakistan, where a provincial government has created emergency centers for emergency medical aid on highways.
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