Participants at a seminar on the subject, held at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, hit out at what they described as the ``primitive state of emergency medical services available in the country'', specifically the Capital.

According to Kiran Bedi, Joint Commissioner (Training), the training given to the police as of now does not go beyond first aid. Delhi Fire Service chief S.K. Dheri said he had a taste of the ``ineptitude'' of the services when he was taken to hospital in a CAT ambulance recently. ``Nothing happens between the site and the hospital,'' he said.

The Fire Service Chief felt that the city should not just stop with CAT. He pointed out how the government had earlier planned a Rs 100,000-crore hospital exclusively for emergency services on a plot near Safdarjung hospital. The place is today a slum colony, Dheri said. Some of the speakers also talked about the fact that witnesses to accidents are reluctant to help mishap victims as they feared harassment from the police.

Kiran Bedi, however, was of the opinion that witnesses today don't face much hassle. Besides, she said a person is legally bound to help a patient get to hospital and thus help the police in turn. But the law is never enforced and no one is ever punished for not helping a victim, she added.

Bedi observed that even a private practitioner was bound by law and ethics to help such a patient. It was not just the public but doctors too who feared harassment in accident cases, according to Head of Department, Forensic Medicine, Prof T.D. Dogra, AIIMS. Despite a Supreme Court judgment which says that doctors are not required to appear in court they are continually being summoned.

The discussion was held as part of an international conference on emergency medical services being organised at the institute.