India: When the doctor gets on the rails

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A hospital integrated into the seven carriages of a train: the “Lifeline Express” crosses the entire country. It is currently stopping in the town of Jalore in western India.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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He has been caring for people in India since 1991. Additional medical care is often needed, especially in rural areas.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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Public hospitals often lack specialists and many people cannot afford to seek treatment in private facilities.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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Treatment in the “Lifeline Express” is therefore free. Patients and their relatives wait in a makeshift waiting room in front of the operating car – people with eye cataracts are treated inside.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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Movan, 77, is also undergoing surgery immediately. She is preparing with her family. “I will never forget the name of that train. Never, for the rest of my life,” she said.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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These volunteers from the National Cadet Corps accompany patients on the journey of the “Lifeline Express”.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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The dental trolley: patients wait for their preventive examination.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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Shortly before the operation: Patients cover their eyes before the operation begins.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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These are often volunteers who volunteer to work in the “Lifeline Express”. An ear operation is currently underway in this cart.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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The mobile hospital offers young volunteers the opportunity to learn a lot and quickly. “As we really work at the local level, we also learn about all kinds of diseases,” says a young doctor.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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After the operation, patients have some time to recover…
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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…. but long-term hospital treatment is not always possible. The train generally stays in the same location for three to four weeks.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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There isn’t much room for staff. Currently, around twenty non-medical people live and work in the “Lifeline Express”. The medical staff, for their part, come mainly from hospitals and universities in the region.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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The train served as a model for similar projects in China, Bangladesh and Cambodia. There will soon be a second train in India that will serve the northern and northeastern regions.
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

If it is too far and too expensive for people to travel to a hospital in the next big city, then the hospital will come to them. That’s what she thought Foundation, endowment Impact India about 27 years ago when she started the “Lifeline Express” project. According to the project management, around 1.2 million people have been treated on the train to date. THE Danish photographer Siddiqui jumped on the mobile hospital in Jalore.