Mishaps rising, yet no trauma centre on Kalka-Shimla NH

The Parwanoo-Solan-Kandaghat national highway witnesses a large number of accidents but still no trauma centre has been built on it. The comparative number of accidental deaths from 2019 to 2022 per lakh population

for Solan district was as high as 58, which was higher than the number for bigger districts like Kangra and Mandi.

A large number of accidents are occurring on the Parwanoo-Solan-Kandaghat National Highway ever since it was widened to four-lanes as motorists feel encouraged to move fast on wider roads but often fail to maintain the safe speed limit of 60 km.

Though trauma centres have been announced from time to time by successive state governments, no serious efforts have been made to construct any.

A trauma centre has been planned in an upcoming multi-specialty hospital building at Solan but since the main project was getting funds in fits and starts, it remains to be seen if such a centre would be constructed in the years to come.

At Dharampur, an urban habitation located on this busy highway, an ill-equipped community health centre having virtually nil facilities caters to an accident emergency where the patients either proceed to the MMU medical college, a distance of about 45 minutes or to the PGI, Chandigarh, which takes over an hour.

Similar is the plight of accident victims happening near Kandaghat where grievously injured patient lose precious time in proceeding towards the IGMC, Shimla.

Though the Health and Family Welfare Minister DR Shandil hails from Solan, he has failed to speed up the work to construct a trauma centre on the highway. Prior to that, in the BJP regime too, two health and family welfare ministers hailed from Solan and Kasauli but trauma centre seemed nowhere on their priority list.

The data secured from the Police Department reveal that 142 accidents have taken place in Solan this year, most of them on the highway. As many as 26 people had lost their lives while 240 were injured in these accidents.

The district’s accident severity, which is a key indicator to monitor road mishaps, has registered a steep rise in the past few years. It is a measure of the number of persons killed per 100 accidents. From 28.4 per cent in 2021, it increased to 30.34 per cent in 2022, as per the data obtained from the Transport Department.

A trauma centre was announced by Union Minister of State for Health Santosh Chowdhary during her brief stint in the UPA government but it proved to be a hollow promise with no follow up. Chief Medical Officer, Solan, Dr Rajan Talwar confirmed that a trauma centre had been planned in the upcoming multi-specialty hospital

at Solan.