The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Rs. 50 crores for improving Perambur Railway Hospital

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 21, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rs. 50 crores for improving Perambur Railway Hospital

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, OCT. 20. While the Union Minister of State for Railways, R. Velu, presented improvement plans for the Perambur Railway Hospital today, the employees too had their own list of demands to be met. Mr. Velu said Rs. 50 crore had been sanctioned for improving the hospital, which has 900 employees.

It would have a new cardiac catheterisation laboratory costing Rs. 3.07 crores. More than 2,000 cardiac interventional procedures were done here every year.

Though preference was given to railway employees, outsiders were also treated. A trauma care block including post-operative care wards was on the anvil. Telemedicine facility would be extended to Tiruchi, Madurai, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram, he said.

Employee demands

Family members sought job assurance for a member when an employee is declared medically unfit. The Southern Railway Mazdoor Union asked for a resident neurologist and nephrologist and a sonograph unit. Often the waiting period for sonograms was almost a month, V.G. Shanmugam, assistant general secretary of the union said.

Meanwhile, an Eastern Railway employee with cardiac problems who came from Kolkata, waited under a tree to see the doctor.

Arun Kumar Sait, who arrived this morning, had a shower at the railway waiting room and came to the hospital with his luggage. His appointment was for 2 p.m. when the outpatient ward starts functioning.

Mr. Sait said depending on the treatment he would rent a room. Rooms are allotted on application but sometimes visitors need to seek private accommodation for want of rooms at the hospital, he said.

Employees and their families with cardiac problems from all 16 zones are referred to this hospital's cardiac care centre. Visitors from other zones have to rent out rooms because the hospital's guesthouses do not have enough space.

G.C. Raju, chief medical director of the hospital said, "We have 72 rooms. We have received proposals from different zones to construct homes." Currently old bungalows have been modified to accommodate up to 50 patients.

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