BMJ 2015;350:h3178 doi: 10.1136/bmj.h3178 (Published 11 June 2015)
Page 1 of 2
News
NEWS India’s intensive care unit on rails Sally Howard London
India’s Central Railway, which operates in the state of Maharashtra, has this month launched the world’s first intensive care unit on rails to speed up access to emergency care for victims of rail crashes.
The idea to use rail carriages as an ambulance is the rail service’s response to the Roha tragedy in 2014, in which 20 coaches derailed 70 miles south of Mumbai, and 22 passengers died due to lack of access to medical facilities. The rail network carries 23 million passengers a day and has witnessed decades of underinvestment in signalling and anti-collision technologies. After the Roha incident the Modi government announced a five year £88bn (€120bn; $135bn) rail network modernisation project.
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SK Sood, general manager of Central Railway, told the Times of India that the repurposed rail coaches were designed to rapidly transport victims from the site of a rail incident to the National Railway Hospital at Byculla in South Mumbai. The rail units “will be rushed through green signalling lights to shift people fast to tertiary care,” Sood said. The two units can accommodate seven to eight patients compared with the one patient that can be carried in an Indian road ambulance, house full intensive care unit facilities, and travel at 90 miles an hour. They will be headquartered at Byculla and staffed by National Railway Hospital paramedics. Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h3178 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2015
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BMJ 2015;350:h3178 doi: 10.1136/bmj.h3178 (Published 11 June 2015)
Page 2 of 2
NEWS
Figure
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Page 1 of 2
News
NEWS India’s intensive care unit on rails Sally Howard London
India’s Central Railway, which operates in the state of Maharashtra, has this month launched the world’s first intensive care unit on rails to speed up access to emergency care for victims of rail crashes.
The idea to use rail carriages as an ambulance is the rail service’s response to the Roha tragedy in 2014, in which 20 coaches derailed 70 miles south of Mumbai, and 22 passengers died due to lack of access to medical facilities. The rail network carries 23 million passengers a day and has witnessed decades of underinvestment in signalling and anti-collision technologies. After the Roha incident the Modi government announced a five year £88bn (€120bn; $135bn) rail network modernisation project.
For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
SK Sood, general manager of Central Railway, told the Times of India that the repurposed rail coaches were designed to rapidly transport victims from the site of a rail incident to the National Railway Hospital at Byculla in South Mumbai. The rail units “will be rushed through green signalling lights to shift people fast to tertiary care,” Sood said. The two units can accommodate seven to eight patients compared with the one patient that can be carried in an Indian road ambulance, house full intensive care unit facilities, and travel at 90 miles an hour. They will be headquartered at Byculla and staffed by National Railway Hospital paramedics. Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h3178 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2015
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
BMJ 2015;350:h3178 doi: 10.1136/bmj.h3178 (Published 11 June 2015)
Page 2 of 2
NEWS
Figure
For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
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