World’s first hospital-on-train Lifeline Express gets two new coaches

Treatment for oral, breast and cervical cancer, stroke prevention and family health services will be provided in the new coaches

The lifeline express, world’s first hospital-on-train, got two new coaches in addition to the existing five on Thursday. The new coaches, inaugurated by the Union health minister JP Nadda and railways minister Suresh Prabhu, will be used for detecting and controlling oral, breast and cervical cancer, preventing stroked and providing family health services.

The new seven-coach Lifeline Express will commence its project at Satna in Madhya Pradesh from December 15, 2016 to January 5, 2017.

“This initiative will help in reaching out to the unreached areas of the country, usually the rural areas where the medical facilities are insufficient or areas hit by natural disasters,” said Nadda.

The new seven-coach Lifeline Express will commence its project at Satna in Madhya Pradesh from December 15, 2016 to January 5, 2017. Other projects in 2017 will be in Telangana, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Gujarat.

The additional services will be provided along with the existing restorative surgeries that are conducted for sight, hearing, clefts, burn contractures (tightening of the skin after a second or third degree burn), orthopaedic impairment, epilepsy and dental problems.

Free-of-cost surgeries for the rural poor will be done in three fully equipped operation theatres. A total of 10,000 persons will benefit at each project location.

The unique project has so far treated over one million poor in rural India, free of cost, which was made possible with the donated services of over 2 lakh medical professionals from around the world. The train has, to date, performed more than one lakh surgeries for restoration of mobility, vision, hearing and correction of facial deformities.