THE ALL India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) trauma centre wn start a twoday crash course to train doctors in emergency care next month. The centre already runs a basic course to train policemen, resident welfare associations and students in first-aid for accident victims.

The course-called the advanced trauma life support -will train all doctors, irrespective of their field of expertise, to manage accident victims and save time lost in transferring patients to specialty hospitals and trauma centres.

"In accident cases, the first hour-called the golden hour-is very crucial.How a patient is managed during that golden hour determines his or her chance of survival, but time is usually lost in com- muting or waiting for experts," said Dr M.C. Misra, chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre.

The course aims to change this by providing all doctors basic training in trauma care. "If an accident happens, there has to be a set protocol that all doctors will have to follow, like in the West," he added.A team of six doctors from AIIMS got trained in the US last year .

The course is a copyright of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and has been brought to India by the Association of Trauma Care of India. The ACS offers a set of two courses-provider course and instructor course-of two-and-a-half day and twoday duration respectively The candidates need to pass a precourse exam to qualify The first batch comprises 25 doctors.