Hospital-on-train reaches Barmer

JAIPUR: The Lifeline Express (LLE), a hospital on a train, came to the Barmer railway station to provide medical help to the disabled and rural poor from September 26 to October 16.

The hospital-on-train was launched in 1991 after an agreement between the Impact India Foundation (IIF), a Mumbaibased NGO, and the railway ministry. It finds mention in the Limca Book of Records as the world’s first hospital-on-train.

“Health minister Kali Charan Saraf and health department principal secretary Veenu Gupta will inaugurate the services at Barmer railway station on September 26,” said Dr Yagnik Vaza, deputy director, health services, LLE.

The idea behind the train is to provide diagnostic, medical, and advanced surgical treatment to persons with disabilities and reach out to inaccessible rural areas that lack medical services.

Doctors on the hospital train will attend to cancer patients in Barmer free of cost, apart from treating eye, cleft lip, epilepsy, dental and hearing problems. Experts from AIIMS-Delhi, AIIMS-Jodhpur, Hinduja Hospital-Mumbai, Tata Memorial Hospital-Mumbai and Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital hospitalJaipur will treat people on LLE, said Dr Pawan Singhal, head and neck cancer surgeon at the SMS Hospital.

He said patients from Barmer, Phalodi, Pokhran, Jaisalmer, Balotara and Jodhpur would get treatment.Officials said 3,500 patients, identified under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), would be treated on this train, also known as Jeevan Rekha Express.

In 26 years, the train has covered 20 states and 184 districts, said IIF chief operating officer Rajneesh Gaur. “More than 1.30 lakh surgeries have been done in this train and over 10 lakh patients attended to in the outpatient department.”