City’s first emergency unit for elderly launched

The unit was launched by Dr Sally Mc Carthy, president, Australian College of Emergency Medicine, and Dr James Ducharme, president, Canada Association of Emergency Physicians and International Federation for Emergency Medicine. Touted as the first dedicated geriatric emergency care in India, Rela Institute Geriatric Unit has a team of multidisciplinary team of surgeons, intensive care and specialised in adult care at the new unit, a release stated.

Dr Sai Surendar, senior consultant and clinical lead in the Department of Emergency Medicine, said that the exclusive emergency suite would take care of elderly people round-the-clock. “This initiative will attend to elderly patients for accident cases, emergency cases due to non-communicable diseases such as heart attacks, and also common ailments. We have a dedicated team available 24/7, and a dedicated emergency helpline round-the-clock (044 6666 7788),” said Dr Sai Surendar.

Doctors said that the need of intervention for elders in case of emergency was more due to low coping ability, reduced immunity and other issues. “With elders in need of more medical care and attention, the initiative will go a long way in serving them and helping them lead a healthy life,”added Dr Sai.