LONDON, Oct. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Primary Care Trauma Foundation (PCTF) is announcing a fundraiser. The PCTF train frontline heroes in a difficult world. It is a universally recognised charity that trains medics and lay volunteers to prepare for when the worst happens anywhere in the world, as well as areas of conflict including Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Myanmar, Syria, Sudan and Ethiopia, as well as territories where conflict and devastation are lesser known. PCTF is non-partisan, focused entirely on the treatment of frontline trauma and the prevention of human suffering. The Charity is fundraising to help support and expand its work.
Tackling the unseen pandemic
Frontline Trauma training and life-saving work across the world.
Globally, injury and trauma have a significant impact on people’s lives, accounting for:
- 6 million deaths annually (equivalent to the population of Ireland)
- 50 million permanently disabled individuals
- 150 million temporarily disabled individuals annually (equivalent to the population of Central and Northern South America, or Russia)
- More deaths than ALL contagious diseases added together (TB, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Measles, Mumps, C19)
Nigel Rossiter, PCTF Chair says:
“With our essential training WHO predicts we can reduce global fatalities by 50% and disabilities by 33%. HIV/AIDS treatment costs $922 per life year gained, while injury training costs just $7 for the same life year gain. PCTF and its volunteers ensure a better chance of life-and-limb-saving initial care for the seriously injured. With minimal funding we can make the massive difference so urgently needed now in the distressing, growing areas of conflict all over the world.”
“In a world where terror, war and population displacement are at levels unseen for decades, our training to alleviate trauma and injury on the frontline is desperately needed,” adds Rossiter. “Our work must grow and we can only do this by increasing the number of trained volunteers across low resource areas of the world including those territories where displacement, death and destruction are rife. Our work can ameliorate the long-term damage to human life for women, children and - of course, those men and women fighting for their own causes.”
Global healthcare funding: the economic fallout for Trauma
Injury from serious trauma episodes is the leading cause of death in the 5–30 age group every year. As this is the working age group of the majority of the global population(2) it is the root cause of 2–3% GDP loss in high income countries and up to 30% in low income countries, yet funding remains extremely limited.
Funding urgently needed
PCTF is fundraising to extend its work to fund more volunteers and deliver greater influence; new funding will help the foundation achieve its mission to ensure locals and residents are equipped to deal with immediate trauma cases, stimulating reduced impact of long-term impact disability, illness and death.
| “Every injured individual should have access to – and has a right to – adequate, timely and effective trauma care that is life or limb saving.” Dr Lin Aung, World Health Organisation Representative to Nepal. |
How it works
The Primary Trauma Care (PTC) course is normally a two-day trauma training course, to train health professionals in a systematic approach to the clinical needs of a severely injured patient. A one-day instructor course is held on day three, whereby those successful students and those wishing to become instructors learn how to teach through interactive, modern skill sets.
During the two day course, students are given the PTC manual as a reference book and are trained through lectures, workshops, clinical skill stations and moulage scenarios. The educational content encompasses all physiological and pathological aspects of trauma care for the patient, taught in a systematic, interactive way culminating in a practice or examination scenario.
How the training cascades
Although the initial training is often done by visiting instructors from other countries, we strongly encourage the local team to take it forward from there. A local PTC committee is formed in each country in order to prioritise and organise the subsequent courses.
The strength of the two-day PTC course and one-day PTC instructor course is that it enables local doctors and healthcare workers to quickly gain the ability to train others in these principles, thereby empowering local clinicians and encouraging them to help their own community.
- PTC training is effectively free to those being trained
- PTC training is designed to cascade locally, enabling autonomy
- PTC training has already trained ~ 1 million trainees across the world
- Training is any of / a combination of: 2-day face to face training + 1-day instructor training; 10 x 1–2-hour modules; hybrid - lectures and discussions online, skill training face-to-face; digital training courses are in development to accelerate outreach and effectiveness of the PTC mission
Watch the PCTF explanatory film here
Background
Patron: Sir Terence English KBE FRCS
The PTC Foundation was founded in 1996 in Oxford, UK by a small group of doctors led by Oxford-based Consultant Anaesthetist Douglas Wilkinson & Emergency Consultant Marcus Skinner. It is a UK registered charity with a Board of Trustees, Ambassadors and thousands of unpaid Volunteers.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/primary-trauma-care-foundation/
X: https://x.com/ptcfoundation
PCTF training is recognised by:
WHO Global Alliance for Care of the Injured
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Royal College of Anaethatists
UK Aid
Australian College for Emergency Medicine
Medicins Sans Frontiers – Doctors without Border
World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesologists
University of Oxford
Kings College London
Partnerships for Global Health
Contact the PCTF:
Nigel Rossiter, Chair of Trustees
chair@primarytraumacare.org
The Primary Trauma Care Foundation
P.O. Box 880
Oxford OX1 9PG
https://www.primarytraumacare.org/
A video accompanying this announcement is available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/35028cfc-a7b8-4d34-8dc2-aea67e33f355
