In government hospitals, cancer treatment becomes cheap, people to get benefits
Posted on: 29/Jan/2020 10:11:00 AM
In many private hospitals, specialised cancer treatment could cost up to Rs 6.5 lakhs. Many poor patients cannot afford such a huge amount of money for their cancer treatment at private hospitals.
Those who are poor or covered under the TN state health insurance scheme need not worry about their treatment. For these people, there would be treated free of cost in government hospitals. The treatment for cancer wouldn’t cost more than Rs 2 lakhs for those who opt for paid wards in government hospitals.
Omandur government general hospital and the government Royapettah hospital had a special visitor yesterday. The chief minister of TN Mr E. Palaniswami inaugurated 2 linear accelerator machines in thee hospitals. These machines have been purchased by the stat for an amount of Rs 20 lakhs. It is known that linear accelerators or Linac machines use X-rays to treat cancerous tumours. In 2019, in Madurai, first Linac machine was launched and it caught the attention.
In a single session, stereotactic radiosurgery could be performed by these Linac machines and for larger cancerous tumours these machines take 3 to 5 sessions. The superb advantage is tumours present in the brain, neck, lungs, liver, spine and other body parts would be treated by precisely focused radiation beams. Normal cells would not be harmed in this process.
As per Mr C. Vijaya Baskar, health minister, TN has the latest technology generation machine. He hinted that similar machines would be set up at 8 her government hospitals. The installation of 7 such machines has been completed and TN is waiting for mandatory approval from AERB. Salem would be the 8th centre. At the popular Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, the third machine would be inaugurated in February and this would be along with PET scan and new tower block.
