Mobile Units in Assam. Why not in Himachal, Uttarakhand and other Himalayan states?
SHIMLA/DEHRADUN: The Assam model has sharpened focus on the grim reality of stroke care in Himalayan states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Ladakh, where geography routinely steals the "golden three hours" before medicine ever gets a chance.
In districts such as Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur, Pangi, Chamba, Chamoli, Pithoragarh, Uttarkashi, Kargil and Zanskar, reaching a stroke-ready hospital often takes 6 to 12 hours on clear days—and much longer during monsoons or winter freeze.
In Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, frequent landslides, cloudbursts, road cave-ins and prolonged highway closures during monsoon months routinely cut off entire valleys.
Ambulances are forced to halt miles away, while patients are shifted on stretchers, private vehicles or delayed overnight—well beyond the critical window for clot-busting therapy.
In Ladakh, vast distances, high altitude, sparse road connectivity and harsh winters make emergency referrals even more precarious, with air evacuation often grounded due to weather.
Medical professionals warn that stroke outcomes in hill states are disproportionately poor—not due to lack of intent, but due to delay in diagnosis and treatment.
With aging populations, rising hypertension and lifestyle diseases even in remote villages, stroke incidence is increasing, while access to neurologists remains confined to a few urban medical colleges.
Against this backdrop, the Mobile Stroke Unit model demonstrated in Assam offers a ready-made solution for the Himalayas.
If MSUs can cut treatment time from 24 hours to 2 hours in the Northeast’s difficult terrain, their relevance for the fragile, disaster-prone Himalayan belt is undeniable.
The political question, however, remains unavoidable: Will Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda deliver Mobile Stroke Units to Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Ladakh with the same urgency shown in Assam?
Or will hill states continue to lose patients to geography, weather and distance despite proven solutions being available?
For the Himalayas, where roads disappear overnight and every minute lost means irreversible brain damage, the message is clear and uncompromising: advanced stroke care must move on wheels, or lives will continue to be lost on the roadside.