Central Railway’s emergency clinics to offer treatment at Re1 per patient

Central Railway will soon have Emergency Medical Rooms (EMRs) with clinics offering medical care for as low as Re1 to patients thanks to a new public-private partnership.

While the first five such clinics will open at Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Wadala and Dadar railway stations in the next two months, 15 more railway stations will get such EMRs in the future.

"Emergency Medical Rooms (EMRs) with one-rupee clinic will come up at Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Wadala and Dadar. They will be established at 15 more stations depending on when the first set is ready, expectedly in a couple of months," reports quoted a senior CR official as saying.

The decision follows a Bombay HC directive to the Central and Western Railway to set up such medical centres at stations to cater to accident victims and other emergency cases.

This will not cause any financial burden for CR except for the space provided by the railways free of cost with water and electricity supply.

The clinics will have round-the-clock doctors for routine patients, emergency help for railway accident victims and visiting specialists for skin diseases, diabetes, gynaecology etc.

Also, medicines and tests facilities would be made available at discounted rates through pathological laboratories and pharmacists selling medicines at discounted rates.

However, the medical agency will be allowed to set up private practice or pharmacies to recover costs in exchange of offering free golden hour treatment to accident victims.