Ramachandra Medical sets up emergency medical centre at railway station

By A Correspondent - Chennai

Chennai ushers in a new paradigm in emergency health care delivery to railway passengers with the setting up of the Sri Ramachandra Emergency Medical Centre (SREMC) at the Central Railway Station. Inaugurated recently, this is probably, the country’s first medical emergency centre to be set up in a public place. The Centre is the brain child of the Chennai-based Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (Deemed University). Set up at the cost of Rs 30 lakh, SREMC is not just a first aid centre, but provides assessment and treatment of medical problems, immediate acute care for medical emergencies including cardiac arrest, stroke and trauma.

Vice-chancellor of the University, S Thanikachalam and the medical director, Dr Vijayalakshmi Kamath said that specially trained doctors and paramedics are available at the centre, which is equipped with mobile advanced cardiac life support systems, telemedicine infrastructure that enables online consultation between the experts at the centre and the specialists at Sri Ramachandra Hospitals (SRH), located in Porur, around 30 kms away from the Central Railway Station.

With this telemedicine facility, specialists at SRH can read computerised electrocardiograms of SREMC patients online to provide immediate advice. Ambulance service is also available. The highlight of the SREMC facilities is the automatic external defibrillation (AED) system, which is capable of analysing cardiac rhythms of the heart attack patients and can charge and deliver shocks automatically if a life-threatening cardiac rhythm is present. Dr Kamath said, “The great majority of heart attack victims die before help can reach them. Time is critical, as many sudden cardiac arrests become fatal 4-7 minutes after the attack occurs. Most cases of such attacks are caused by ventricular fibrillation. AED will cut down the number of lives lost due to lack of timely defibrillation.”

Dr Kamath said that it returns on the investment made at SREMC was not expected by the University since this was considered as a public service and valuable learning experience for the Medical Students and paramedics. Prof Thanikachalam said that after gaining experience from the SREMC, the hospital might extend the facility at other public places in the future.