Pre-Hospital Trauma Care course, Guwahati, Assam, NE India

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In April 2026, Dr Fionna Moore and Dr Rob Russell visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Guwahati, Assam, to deliver an FPHC Pre-Hospital Trauma Care (PHTC) course and attend the first North East India Conclave on Disaster Medicine. Both events formed part of the continuing initiative with Saving Lives International (SLI) to develop pre-hospital care, disaster medicine, preparedness and planning in India and Nepal. The importance of this work was clear: North East India is at high risk of earthquakes, floods and mudslides, a reality reinforced during the visit by severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. One candidate was unable to attend because of flooding.

Twenty-two candidates attended the 2-day PHTC course, followed by a 1-day Disaster Medicine Primer. Dr Moore and Dr Russell were joined by Dr Ajit Kayal, a UK emergency physician and Visiting Professor at AIIMS Guwahati; Professor TV Ramakrishnan, Head of the Emergency Department at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER), Chennai, which is the PHTC course centre in Tamil Nadu; and Dr Tausif Thangalvadi, an emergency physician from Hyderabad. Although some candidates required additional moulage assessment and MCQ retakes, all 22 passed the course, with 6 selected as potential instructors.

At the closing ceremony, Professor Ashok Puranik, Director of AIIMS Guwahati, who had been instrumental in bringing the course to the Institute, and Professor Peter Patel, founder of SLI, congratulated the successful candidates. The course also received significant coverage in the local press and on television.

The first North East India Conclave on Disaster Medicine took place over the following 2 days. It brought together a multidisciplinary audience from all 8 states in the region to discuss local disaster risks and the challenges involved in preparing for them. The conclave marked an important step towards building regional consensus, with valuable lessons shared by all parties.

Dr Russell will return to AIIMS Guwahati in September 2026 to deliver an instructor course for the 6 candidates selected from the April PHTC course. They will then immediately deliver a PHTC Provider course to a new group of candidates under his direction. This follows the model used at SRIHER, which recently ran its second PHTC course entirely by local faculty, with remote FPHC guidance and clinical-governance oversight. It is hoped that this approach will help establish AIIMS Guwahati as the second PHTC course centre in India. There is a network of 20 AIIMS institutes across India and the potential to use this network to further spread this initiative.
  

Author: Dr Rob Russell, FPHC International Development Lead