Title - Railway hospital without ambulance, unions protest

Medical facilities provided by the department of railways for its employees at the Railways Hospital stood exposed on Friday night when a shunting master, Chhote Lal, 50, injured himself.However, when his colleagues took him to the railway hospital around 11.30 pm, the doctor in the hospital asked to take him to Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) and that too on their own. "They do not even have an ambulance forget the proper treatment facilities. When we asked the doctor to give at least the financial sanction and inform CMCH that we are coming there, she said there is no such provision,"ML Parashar, divisional assistant secretary, Uttariya Railway mazdoor Union (URMU) told Newsline.It was only after an ambulance was called by dialing 108 that Lal was taken to CMCH and union members collected money to deposit in CMCH late on Friday. Even on Saturday morning, Parwinder Singh, divisional traffic manager who was responsible to tackle the case did not reach the hospital to see the patient and nor did railways provided any financial support to the family. This sparked off an intense protest on Saturday afternoon.Both railway unions, URMU and Northern Railway Men's Union (NRMU) who earlier were up against each other came together for the cause and raising slogans against the administration. They protested on Ludhiana railway station due to which six trains got delayed for more than three hours and Shan-E-Punjab (coming from Delhi going to Amritsar) was stopped under Jagraon bridge.

"The officials did not even bother to recognise some private hospitals where patients can be taken in case of emergency," said Parashar demanding strict action against the officials.

"His foot was bleeding but that did not have any affect on Dr Reena who was on duty that time and when we asked her to contact chief medical officer immediately and arrange for funds to shift patient to CMCH she just sent a SMS," Parashar added.

Advisory to be issued tomorrow

The intense agitation by members of both the unions finally bore some results when divisonal railways manager, Ferozepur division N C Goyal ordered senior divisional electric engineer Anurag Aggarwal to immediately enquire into the matter. "A sum of Rs 75,000 was deposited by railway authorities after protest in CMCH," Parashar said.Reportedly, Parwinder Singh, DTM and Dr Reena, who were responsible for the lapses on Friday night apologised to the union members after which protest was finally called off around 2 pm.When contacted, Ravinder Sharma, station superintendent, said, "There were some shortcomings and after concerned people apologised it is now over." Asked if action will be taken against them, he said, "DRM NC Goyal will be issuing an advisory for railway hospitals and staff on Monday and only then it will be decided if action will be taken or not."