As many travelogues portray: travel is blissful. But ask someone who has fallen sick on Indian trains, they will comment: travelling is nothing but hellish. With the acute shortage of capable medical staff, Indian railways are struggling to provide on time medical help at station. But not anymore, for RailYatri has launched its Medical Emergency feature. Seeking information about medical emergency in train travel has become easier than ever.
Highlights of Medical Emergency Feature:
- Healthcare information for over 1000 Hospitals
- Hospitals across 6000 stations listed
- 300+ emergency ambulance numbers listed
- Results shown after judging patient’s/train’s present location
- Directions to the healthcare facility from the station
- Detailed information about all facilities at the hospitals
Healthcare takes a backseat on Indian Trains
Indian Railways despite being the largest organization of its sort on earth can also at times fall short on providing emergency medical facility in train or along the route Its’s best to be better prepared and not be sorry later. That reminds of an incident that happened with my friend’s family that depicts how lack of information during a health emergency can haunt the passengers for a lifetime.
My friend Anil’s father was travelling with his mother to Chennai for an emergency kidney transplant. The transplant had been awaited for months and when they finally found a donor they hurried to Chennai. And luckily, they also obtained tickets on a premium train. The journey started smoothly but just after few hours his mother (the patient) started feeling discomfort while breathing and the situation worsened in no time. His father being over 70 years of age got quite agitated at first. But soon he sprung to action, called the ticket checker and requested him to arrange for first aid medical facilities in train.
I would like to mention that as per the High Court ruling, each premium train should contain adequate medical supplies for emergency healthcare, however as luck would have it, there was nothing more than some antiseptics and painkillers available on the train. The ticket checker informed the locomotive driver about the medical emergency and help was sought from upcoming stations. Two upcoming stations did not have any attending railway doctor, so critical health attention could not be provided immediately. The third station that was about an hour and a half’s distance away, offered help. All this while, his father also went through hell as he felt helpless and completely at the mercy of the ticket checker and the little information that the railway officials had.
When his mother was finally stretchered off. Despite being hurried off to a local government hospital at the third station, her plight was not yet over. She was attended by a general physician, who neither had the specialization to deal with her case nor access to adequate healthcare facilities. Finally, a local person arranged for her to be shifted to a multi-specialty hospital nearby where she was rendered proper medical attention which saved her life.
This makes me question: are our elderly fathers and mothers safe on trains? Are they left to sheer luck, if, God forbid, some medical emergency arises? This is why I would suggest everyone to be prepared and install RailYatri’s updated app (with Medical Emergency feature) on your father or mother’s phone. You never know when it may become a life saver for them.
We have kept the features really simple. You could take some time off this weekend to install the app in your parent’s phone and give them a short demo of its working. Safeguard your loved ones health with RailYatri.
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