CHENNAI:To provide advanced medical care to patients and maintain medical records online, the Railway Board has decided to provide Wi-Fi connection in all railway hospitals.The move is mainly aimed at simplifying the maintenance of medical records at hospitals and facilitating consultations between patients and doctors through hi-tech devices.
“To exchange the medical records, to provide ease in consultation, enable tele-video chat and conference with specialists for better patient care, Wi-Fi will be provided at zonal and divisional hospitals before December 31,” read a Railway Board directive issued to the Southern Railway (SR) on Friday.The SR, which has jurisdiction over Tamil Nadu and Kerala, has 11 hospitals, of which the headquarters hospital at Perambur remains one of the highly patronised railway hospitals in the country. The 90-year-old hospital handles about 1,400 to 1,500 outpatients a day.
Besides the divisional hospitals at Arakkonam, Madurai, Tiruchy, Erode, Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad, sub-divisional hospitals are at Villupuram, Shoranur and Podanur. In addition, the coach production unit ICF runs a modernised hospital in Ayanavaram.
The railway hospitals, which are mostly four to five decades old, have been built to provide medical care to railway staff and their family and retired railway employees and their dependents. The move is expected to improve the quality of care for the serving and retired railway employees who undergo medication for longer period.
“Post-retirement, a large chunk of railway employees suffer from blood pressure, diabetics, asthma and other chronic illness that require medication for longer duration. Such patients are forced to maintain medical records for years. Once the Wi-Fi facility is provided, hospitals can be upgraded to maintain the medical records online,” said railway sources.
Each division has 8,500 to 9,000 serving employees and 4,500 to 5,000 retired employees. In addition, the ICF has 10,200 serving employees and 11,000 retired employees. The Railway Board has also ordered installation of CCTV cameras at zonal and divisional railways hospitals to monitor the cleanliness and other activities.
wellness priority
Southern Railway has 11 hospitals and caters to about 60,000 serving employees and 25,000 retired employees
ICF has 10,500 serving staff and 10,944 retired staff
Zonal and divisional hospitals to get Wi-Fi and CCTV before Dec 31
The move is aimed at simplifying maintenance of medical records
Online maintenance of records
Post-retirement, a large chunk of railway staff suffer from blood pressure, diabetics, asthma and other chronic illness that require medication for longer duration. Such patients are forced to maintain medical records for years. Once the Wi-Fi is provided, hospitals can be upgraded to maintain the medical records online