Patna: Emergency patients reaching Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) would be classified into red, yellow and green zones on the basis of severity of illness from April.

The hospital is set to introduce a triage system as part of which the three zones would be created for the treatment of emergency patients on the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, and many other premier hospitals of the country.

If implemented, IGIMS would be the first government hospital in the state to have a triage system.

"The triage system would be introduced under emergency medicine department of the hospital, which has been created last year. A three-member team headed by Aruna Munasinghe, the adviser to the accident and emergency project of the Sri Lankan government, has trained IGIMS doctors in the triage system and on other aspects of emergency medicine last week. On the suggestion of Munasinghe's team, the IGIMS is going to start the triage system, which would aim at speedy identification of patients and nature of their emergency. Red, yellow and green zones would be created and patients would be taken to different zones on the basis of their degree of illness and their treatment would be started on prioritisation level," said IGIMS director N.R. Biswas.

The IGIMS has appointed Munasinghe as visiting professor of emergency medicine department of the hospital. He has vast experience of setting up emergency care in Sri Lanka. Munasinghe happens to be the first in-charge of the Sri Lanka Victoria Emergency and Trauma Care Centre where the triage system was introduced.

Divulging details on red, yellow and green zones, in-charge of the emergency medicine department at IGIMS Sanjeev Kumar said: "Patients with life-threatening conditions that require immediate treatment such as patients with airway compromise, shock, seizure among others would be taken to the red zone. Patients who are less critical and need definitive treatment but don't have immediate threat to life would be taken to the yellow zone. Patients having minimal injury and can wait for treatment would be taken to the green zone. Team of doctors and nurses would evaluate patients and they would take them to certain zones. Doctors would treat patients of red zones on priority and they would attend patients of yellow and green zone later."

IGIMS medical superintendent Manish Mandal said the hospital has already created red and green zones while it would create yellow by April first week so that the triage system could be started in April.