Over 1,000 Doctors Trained As India Set To Deploy Portable Hospitals Near Borders Amid Tensions With Pakistan

SOURCE ; NEW18

Last Updated:May 10, 2025, 22:48 IST

The world’s first disaster hospital, fitted in 72 cubes that can be airlifted, is being packed and delivered to several locations across India

Amid the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, the central government has begun deploying made-in-India portable disaster hospitals across all border areas, News18 has learnt.

The world’s first disaster hospital, fitted in 72 cubes that can be airlifted, is being packed and delivered to several locations across India. Also, India has begun training doctors to use this cube-style hospital, known as the Aarogya Maitri Cube.

Project BHISHM

Built under the project BHISHM—Bharat Health Initiative for Sahyog Hita and Maitri—these cubes contain an operation theatre, mini-ICU, ventilator, blood test equipment, X-ray machine, cooking station, food, water, shelter, power generator, and many more facilities. “In the last 20 days, we have dispatched around 30 to 40 Cubes from our warehouse to institutes of national importance across the border areas,” former Air Vice Marshal Dr Tanmoy Roy, who headed the BHISHM task force in 2023, told News18.

Roy, who is credited as the visionary behind the BHISHM cubes, which are designed for rapid deployment in disaster and conflict zones, said that the cubes are being deployed as per the plan designed and communicated by the union ministry of health and family welfare. The kits are being procured by HLL Lifecare, which is a Miniratna enterprise under the ministry of health and family welfare.

Some of the top institutions that have received the portable hospital include All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Vijaypur (Samba district of Jammu), Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar, and Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital, Jammu.

Apart from Jammu & Kashmir, AIIMS Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh), AIIMS Rishikesh (Uttarakhand), AIIMS Jodhpur (Rajasthan), and AIIMS Bathinda (Punjab) have also received the BHISM cubes, along with Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Pondicherry) and North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong, Meghalaya. In the next week, Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital is also expected to receive the delivery.

These cubes can be quickly moved to the location of the crisis, as and when required, along with doctors and paramedics.

Over 1,000 doctors trained to handle war-related injuries

In the last ten days, more than 1,000 doctors and paramedic staff have been trained on Aarogya Maitri Cube hospitals. The portable hospital has been designed to handle war-like health emergencies, which include bullet injuries, explosions, fractures, and bleeding. The hospital contains an anaesthesia kit, which contains advanced surgical equipment, with an operation theatre (OT) for casualties needing surgical intervention. The OT contains one foldable table for a surgical team of five people. It has a ventilator, anaesthesia, and several other important medical devices.

“The training is going on across India. In the last 10 days, we have trained more than 1,000 doctors and other healthcare staff,” said Roy, who came back on Saturday morning from Jammu after training doctors in the tense region. “We are training them on how they can use the portable hospital as normally as they use their usual premises. Also, doctors are trained for trauma, but not war. We are trying to make them familiar with war-like situations and triage.”

The BHISHM cube has everything that a doctor would need to handle a mass casualty. “From handling bleeding, bullet injuries, explosive blasts, fractures, spine injuries, and lung or abdomen injuries to conducting surgeries—the cube has everything,” said Roy.

First Published:

May 10, 2025, 22:48 IST