Doctors on-call service to be available at 14 stations in West Bengal

Written by Sanchari Chattopadhyay Published On 2023-04-03T17:30:59+05:30 | Updated On 3 April 2023 12:01 PM GMT

Doctors on-call service to be available at 14 stations in West Bengal

KOLKATA: In an attempt to ensure emergency healthcare facilities are made available in fourteen stations, including the most populated stations like Howrah and Sealdah, will have the facilities of 24x7 doctors-on-call.

This came as a step to improve healthcare in 270 stations with wellness centres over the next five years.

At 14 stations, including Howrah, Dankuni, Burdwan, Sealdah, Barrackpore, Barasat, Durgapur, Malda Town, Jasidih, Kahalgaon, Bolpur, Berhampore Court, Krishnanagar, and Rampurhat, doctors will be available for in-person consultations.

Eastern Railway general manager Arun Arora informed the Times of India that travelers under serious circumstances became critical and lost valuable time because it takes time to move them to the emergency room of a hospital.

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"The wellness centres on station premises will have all kinds of facilities for passengers, railway staff and the local community. Fourteen of them will have doctors on day and night duties. This way, we facilitate the Golden Hour response," she added.

The private healthcare group has been awarded the contract to operate the centres on railway station premises. It will pay ER about Rs 3.3 crore as the first year's license fee and Rs 16.9 Crore for five years. The centres will have telemedicine and diagnostic facilities.

West Bengal government has come up with a number of reforms to improve the healthcare Services during and after COVID. Last year the West Bengal Government introduced Special Programme for doctors after noticing that several private medical colleges do not provide adequate training to their students despite taking a huge amount of money.

The Chief Minister laid the foundation of several new projects, including a 10-storeyed 124-bedded private cabin building last year. West Bengal has a total number of 27 medical colleges with an intake capacity of 4150 MBBS seats. Among these, 3150 MBBS seats are in 20 Government medical colleges and 1000 MBBS seats are in 7 private medical colleges.

Source : With inputs

Sanchari Chattopadhyay

Sanchari Chattopadhyay has pursued her M.A in English and Culture Studies from the University of Burdwan, West Bengal. She likes observing cultural specificities and exploring new places.