City govt hospitals now equipped with linear accelerators

Speaking at the event, the Chief Minister stated that linear accelerators will now help provide advanced treatment for cancer patients as part of radiotherapy, which was earlier availed in private sector hospitals.

The side effects of the other conventional cancer treatment procedures are expected to be minimised with the use of the new facilities as the linear accelerators help to provide site-specific treatment.

Besides the facility worth Rs 22 crore being opened for public use at the government general hospital, radiotherapy facilities at a cost of Rs 6 crore were also launched at thehospital.

Officials in the State Health department said that 10 such linear accelerators to be installed in various government hospitals across Tamil Nadu were recently procured by the department.

Similarly, the linear accelerator set up at nearly Rs 20 crore at the Royapettah Government General Hospital was also inaugurated by the Chief Minister through video-conferencing. According to sources, the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in the city is also likely to get a linear accelerator on the premises next month. The State will also reportedly inaugurate PET CT scan units in government hospitals next month.

Hospital authorities say that three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiotherapy and image-guided radiotherapy can now be facilitated at government hospitals.