Mangaluru: The much-awaited facility of “medical booth” which is slated to come up at the Central Railway station will start functioning within a month. The officials at Central Railway Station confirmed that the permission to run the medical booth has been granted to a city-based “Unity Hospital” by the higher officials and it will start functioning from the first week of October.
If everything goes as planned, Mangaluru Central Railway station would become the first railway station in coastal Karnataka, where the facility of the medical booth is available. The medical booth would come up with the necessary medicines and first-aid-treatment equipment. Paramedical staff will also be deployed at the booth who will give service round the clock at free of cost. Maintaining the medical booth, providing salary to the employees among others would be the responsibility of hospital only. The railway department is entitled to provide space to run the medical booth. Railway department would also allow the hospital to display the name and logo of the hospital.
How does it work?
Two paramedical staff would be available in the medical booth round the clock to provide first aid treatment. After the treatment, the patient party can go to any hospital which they like for further treatment. After the first aid treatment for the patient, the staff would send the patient to a nearby hospital for further treatment through their ambulance. However, the medical booth would not charge for their service.
What forced the railway station to bring this facility?
Deputy Station Manager of Central Railway Station Kishan Kumar said that when a passenger had slipped while alighting from the train and was injured few months ago, none was ready to shift him to the hospital. Though an ambulance was called to the place, it came to the spot after half an hour. “In order to save a life, first aid treatment is very essential. Hence, I contacted the management of the private hospital and asked them to start a medical booth facility. As the Unity Hospital has come forward to give service, I approached senior officials of the railway department and succeeded to get permission for the same. The work on the medical booth is almost complete except for water and electricity connection. Once the work completes, the booth will start its functioning,” he said.
The medical booth facility is available now only at Shoranur, Kannur and Calicut railway stations in Kerala and Mysuru and Bengaluru railway stations in Karnataka. No other railway station has this facility anywhere in coastal Karnataka. The Mangaluru Central Railway station has a footfall of over 30,000 passengers daily. More than 50 passenger trains go from this railway station everyday. Hence, the facility of medical booth was very essential here.
