SM Yasir Arafat*, Md. Saleh Uddin, Esmot Zarin Chowdhury, Nafisa Huq, Shoebur Reza Choudhury and Md. Hafizur Rahman Chowdhury
Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is an important option in health care delivery system which can reduce morbidity and mortality. Though emergency medical service (EMS) service available for physical illness, still absent for mental illness in government sector. Bangladesh is one of the developing countries in Asia which just transformed from low income status to lower middle income. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in adult is 6.5 to 31% but the government expenses 0.06% of the total budget in mental health sector and the mental health act is yet to be approved. This cross sectional study intended to observe the demography and distribution of diagnosis of patients of two private hospitals who were hospitalized involuntarily via EMS. Two psychiatric hospitals were selected purposively and reviewed the EMS request forms and hospital discharge certificates of the respective patients. Among the patients, the common diagnoses were Schizophrenia (34.7%), Substance Related Disorders (18.8%), Bipolar Disorders (15.8%) and Personality Disorders (12.9%). Very few patients were admitted from rural background. There is lack of integrated national EMS system and some private initiatives provided for medical and psychiatric patients. It is an urgent need of further research in this field to identify limits and strength of the emergency medical service system as well as the integration and expansion of the service in government and private hospitals can be an effective option for addressing the mental health emergencies across the areas.
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