Equip first-aid boxes at railway stations with life-saving drugs, ex-station master urges Vaishnaw

New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) A retired station master who served for more than 40 years has urged Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to modernise the first-aid boxes at railway stations by replacing unusable medicines with life-saving drugs to ensure that passengers receive timely and effective treatment when needed.

“There is an urgent and long-overdue need to comprehensively review and modernise the contents of the mandatory first-aid boxes maintained at various stations and offices of Indian Railways,” Virendra Kumar Paliwal, a former station master with the Central Railway Zone, said in a letter addressed to Vaishnaw.

“Despite being a critical life-saving facility, this system has unfortunately not received adequate attention or scientific updating since Independence,” he claimed, requesting Vaishnaw to include his proposal in the ‘52 Reforms in 52 Weeks’ initiative launched by the Railway Ministry on January 1.

Paliwal argued that while medicines like Diazepam tablets were not used even once in his entire career, the availability of only Soframycin cream as an antiseptic was no longer adequate.

“Based on my personal experience of nearly 40 years of service in Indian Railways, I wish to highlight that certain medicines currently included in the first-aid boxes are either obsolete or practically unusable in real emergencies,” Paliwal said.

“For instance, Diazepam tablets have never been required in my entire service career. Even doctors who conducted first-aid training programmes for railway staff were unable to clearly explain its practical use by non-medical railway employees,” he added.

Paliwal also said that if a medicine cannot be safely and confidently administered by trained staff, its inclusion serves little purpose and may be reviewed for deletion.

He suggested the inclusion of modern and more effective antiseptics such as Betadine cream and Betadine liquid.

“Betadine liquid, in particular, is extremely useful for cleaning wounds through irrigation before dressing, both for injured passengers and railway staff, and should be mandatorily provided in the first-aid boxes,” he said.

Paliwal also expressed concern over the absence of essential life-saving medicines for heart attack emergencies.

“Railway premises witness the movement of millions of passengers daily, along with employees working under stressful and demanding conditions.

“The timely availability of basic emergency cardiac medicines could potentially save hundreds of valuable lives before professional medical help arrives,” the ex-station master said.

He also suggested some medicines that are inexpensive, widely available, and globally recognised as standard emergency measures in suspected cardiac events.

When contacted, Paliwal said he had consulted medical experts and railway doctors on modernising first-aid boxes at railway stations, and based on their suggestions, decided to write to the railway minister, as the issue required “urgent attention”. PTI JP ARI