On duty Mumbai cops will get mobile medical van services

Mumbai: Mumbai police commissioner Datta Padsalgikar inaugurated mobile medicine van services for on-duty personnel in the city. As part of the initiative, three vans, each with a doctor and pharmacist onboard, will conduct medical check-ups, including blood pressure and heart ailments, of on-duty personnel posted across the city between 10 am and 9 pm the entireweek.

As per data concerning police’s health, nearly 60 per cent officers face common health problems such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. “Three vans with doctors have been stationed in south Mumbai that will make rounds of the city, especially in the vicinity of police stations and nakabandis, to provide timely health services.

The vans have been given a schedule to tend to police in different areas,” said Pravin Padwal, additional commissioner of police, south region. “The doctors will address basic health problems of policemen. The doctor will also keep tabs on medicine timings and whether police personnel are taking them properly or not.”

The vans will provide medicines to police officers free of cost. It has been seen that policemen tend to neglect their health while performing their duties and the vans will remind them to take care of themselves. The service is such that policemen need not visit doctors; rather, doctors will come to them for check-up.

Long gaps between meals, inadequate sleep and long working hours have taken a huge toll on the health of police personnel. Some police stations in the city have adopted eight hour work regimes to ensure that officers get adequate rest.