Title - No medical shops at Central, Egmore stations

The two most important railway stations in Tamil Nadu — Central and Egmore do not have a full-fledged pharmacy.

But passengers have had a little respite in the form of the two 24/7 medical centres started by SRM University at Egmore and Central stations respectively, four months ago.

Emergency cases like giddiness, chest pain and seizures had been treated by the medical centre at the Central Railway Station in the last few months.

Nearly 10-20 patients were being treated on a daily basis. The centre even has an ambulance facility in case of emergencies.

Officials at the medical centre at Central Station said that there were two medical shops on the station premises two years ago, but were closed when their licence expired.

In the case of the Egmore Station, it has never had a medical shop for ages. A few passengers added that one had to walk for at least 10 minutes to reach the nearest medical shop.

However, the officials that it was not possible for these centres to have stock of all the medicines for every ailment and urged the need for a full-time medical shop inside the station.

“Of course, a medical shop will be of great help to the people. The people come here to get medicines that they had been prescribed or sometimes they even come with a prescription to get medicines. But here, we don’t have stock of all medicines, so we direct them to nearest medical shop. A medical shop inside will definitely be a relief,” said a medical staff at the Egmore Railway station.

When City Express approached the railway officials for their comment, they acknowledged the absence of such a facility for a long time at both the Central and Egmore Railway stations. They said that the medical shops at the Central Station were closed earlier due to the expiry of their licence. Also, there was a problem with the dealers before over payment of rent.

Regarding the demand for medical shops, they assured that necessary steps will be taken as soon as possible.

However they did not commit on a specific deadline.

“We know that it has been more than a year since we had a medical shop but we are in the process of calling for tenders. So in a few months, the station will definitely re-open a pharmacy at the Central Railway Station,” said the railway authority from the division office.