Coronavirus preventive drug distribution in Ponmalai railway hospital surprises many

TIRUCHI: Saturday morning was a little different for the staff and regular visitors at the Railway Hospital in Ponmalai. People had started lining up in front of the Homeopathic Clinic and the queue was becoming longer with each passing minute. 

The line could have been of railway employees for their regular check-up but further enquiries revealed that they were actually waiting for the Coronavirus preventive medicine. This created a stir among several allopathic practitioners in the hospital who question how this medicine work. However, the people in the queue were not waiting there because of some baseless rumours. 

Some of them pulled out the direction issued by the Golden Rock Railway Workshop Personnel Officer T Sankaran on Friday. It clearly states that the Coronavirus preventive medicine is available at the Homeopathic Clinic in Railway Hospital and the employees should use it to prevent the viral infection.

Much like the disease, information about this direction quickly spread and more people started coming for the medicine. "Since I am a railway employee, I don't have to pay for the medicine. Several workers have received this direction. So I came to the clinic very early to get the medicine," said Laxman Kumar, a railway employee.

Some of the employees who took the medicine said that they can now ignore the sanitary guidelines. "Since the medicine is distributed by the Railway, it would be the best one. I am safe now," an employee said. TNIE also approached the railway hospital for getting preventive medicine. Since the medicine was only for railway employees, a prescription for buying the medicine from outside was given instead.

Meanwhile, when the top brass of Southern Railway came to know about this direction, they started an enquiry. Before things got out of hand, the Tiruchy Railway division came up a clarification. "It has come to our notice that some letter is in circulation claiming the availability of "Coronavirus preventive medicine" at the Homeopathy Clinic of the Railway Hospital. This message/letter is misleading and incorrect. Such claims have no veracity and the letter is not authentic. It has not been issued by the authorities," says the railway in its Press Release.

Meanwhile, T Sankaran issued another order in the evening to withdraw his earlier direction. "The cough and cold arising from viral and bacterial diseases are treated by the Homeopathic medicines generally, and not the coronavirus. Hence the order stands withdrawn," says the order issued by T Sankaran on Saturday. Although the railway issued some clarifications which was due, several people have already taken the medicine. Many employees say that the railway should issue a clear message to its employees to ignore the earlier direction. "Most of these medicines are brought by railway employees. The railway can easily inform them," said a railway employee.