Tiruchy division under Southern Railways is the first to empanel local doctors for a ‘financially neutral divisional disaster management plan’, said S G Madwesh, chief medical superintendent, here on Thursday.
This ‘novel’ plan, he said is ‘financially neutral’ and will enhance emergency preparedness by saving time during rescue and relief operations. Presenting a paper on ‘Divisional Disaster Management Plan’ at the 14th annual conference of the Indian Railways Public Health Association, Dr Madwesh stressed the need for each railways division to have a disaster management plan. “For each 100 km there should be a health unit which has one doctor to attend every day”.
If there is a train accident in an urban vicinity the victims get aid immediately, but if the accident occurs in remote places, due to communication and transportation delays, victims may not have the chance to survive.
Speaking to Express, Dr Madwesh said, “It is impossible for a health unit doctor to attend all the victims immediately during accidents. Moreover, if the doctor is on leave or has gone to attend some other cases, that creates more problems. In order to improve the emergency preparedness, we empanel local doctors with an honorarium of `1,000 per day and request them to look after health units in a particular railway division where the concerned doctor is absent.”
This novel initiative, a brainchild of Dr Madwesh, was first implemented in Mysore division on December 2010 and provided good results during emergencies such as the derailment of an engine immediately after the tunnel on the Sakleshpur-Subramanya Ghat section.
“When some miscreants pelted stones at the Manglore-Yashwantpur train a couple of months ago the presence of empanelled of doctors helped the victims get quick attention,” he said.
Presently, the Railways hires contract medical practitioners for the health units during the absence of doctors in a division, who are paid `1,313 per day.
“Even the doctor at a health unit, when he attends a disaster in that particular division, will be given `1,000 as travelling allowance that includes `575 for the doctor and `425 for his/her attendant. Since the same amount will be paid to empanelled doctors, instead of paying `1,313 to contract medical practitioners, this initiative will cut cost to a great extent” added Madwesh.
He said that a minimum of four local doctors should be empanelled to assist during an emergency.
Sources from Southern Railways said that since the new initiative turned out to be a successful one, it is planned to implement it in all divisions. Once permission is granted by top officials the initiative will be implemented at the earliest, the sources added.