Accident-prone Kalka-Shimla highway awaits trauma centre

Tribune News Service

Solan, December 9

Successive state governments have failed to set up a trauma centre on the accident-prone Kalka-Shimla national highway (NH-5). This is despite the fact that two MLAs from Kasauli and Solan have been the Health and Family Welfare Minister in the past decade.

The figures secured from the Police Department reveal that this year, the Solan police district has registered 158 accidents, in which 44 persons were killed and 226 injured. The lion’s share of 111 accidents have taken place on the stretch from Parwanoo to Waknaghat. While 34 people lost their lives, as many as 148 suffered injuries.

A maximum of 82 accidents have taken place in the jurisdiction of Dharampur and Solan Sadar police stations, which also account for the maximum of 21 deaths and 85 injured persons this year.

In the absence of any emergency treatment, patients are referred from the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Dharampur to the MMU and its affiliated Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College and Hospital or to the IGMC, Shimla, after receiving preliminary treatment at the local hospitals. This often proves fatal in case of grievous injuries when immediate first aid and further treatment is required.

“Though the state government brags about funds worth crores having been set aside to improve healthcare facilities under the National Health Mission, the medical institutes along the highway lack even basic facilities such as well-equipped labs to cater to emergency patients,” says Ajay, a resident of Dharampur. He rued that several villagers had to be rushed to the PGI, Chandigarh, in the absence of adequate treatment after serious road accidents.

Dharampur Block Medical Officer Dr Kavita Sharma said, “Accident patients often come to the CHC, but due to the lack of specialised facilities, they are referred to advanced institutes such as the MMU Medical College and Hospital.”

She said a trauma centre was urgently needed on this highway as the rate of accidents was high.

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