Kazakhstan consdering 'golden hour' rule to save victims of accidents

Kazakhstan Healthcare Ministry will be implementing the “golden hour” rule for accidents, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Vie-PM Yerbol Orynbayev. “I think that the time has come for us to implement the “golden hour” rule that requires that medical aid is rendered within an hour. This is very important. We have a big capacity to do this. We have big plans to cover the main roads between the cities, especially Almaty and Astana. We have to update the ambulance car fleets in the cities. We have to have some kind of bylaws in the future. The tragedy happened near Astana last fall, when 15 people died in a car accident and the injured ones were transported on passing-by cars. This case showed that we need over a hour and a half to get a helicopter in the air especially in rural areas. It takes 15 minutes in Turkey, for example,” Vice-PM said at the meeting in the Healthcare Ministry. The “golden hour” rule applies to the time when victims of an accident are balancing between life and death and medical aid is most effective. 15 people died and 22 were injured in a car accident when a Chinese truck, a passenger bus and a car smashed into each other in Akmola oblast in August 2012. According to the authority, the Yutong bus carrying 31 people ran into the Shaanxi truck and Audi car on August 19 near Babatai village at kilometer 1,310 of Almaty-Yekaterinburg road. Sanitary aviation is patrolling the international and local roads starting from 2011.