The Southern Railways has proposed to set up free emergency medical assistance centres at all major railway stations within its limits shortly.
The railways has initially identified Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Tambaram, and Salem junction for setting up this facility, joining hands with the leading medical care providers.
The centres have already come up and functioning successfully at Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, both in association with SRM Hospital and Salem Junction in association with Vinayaka Mission Hospital.
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The centre in Tambaram station is coming up fast and it will be manned by Global Hospitals, Chennai, according to railway sources here.
The zonal unit runs about 434 suburban trains and 742 non-suburban trains daily transporting around 2.4 million passengers each day and as such setting up the free emergency medical assistance centres will go a long way in providing timely medical aid to the needy commuters.
The facilities extended at the emergency medical care centres include round-the-clock emergency medical care / first-aid to passengers, and free ambulance facility to transport passengers to nearby hospitals for further treatment.
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There are qualified medical staff and medicines and equipment for trauma / emergency care. Wheelchairs and stretchers are also available in these centres, where periodical health camps and medical awareness programmes will also be organised. This facility will be extended to other major railway stations soon, the sources added.