Vijayawada:Andhra Pradesh will start its PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scanning facility at the Guntur Government Hospital on Thursday.
Health minister Satya Kumar Yadav and union Rural Development minister of state Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar will inaugurate the facility that detects cancer. The scanning will be free of cost, whether the patients are from the middle class or poor.
The NDA government in AP has bought the PET scan machine at a cost of ₹18 crore from the US. It is for the first time that such high-end medical equipment is being installed in a government hospital.
So far, PET scan facilities have been available at 18 private corporate hospitals in Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Guntur, Tirupati, Kurnool, Anantapur and other places in the state.
In a statement, the Health minister pointed out that private corporate hospitals charge up to ₹20,000 for PET scan, whereas it will be available for free at the Guntur government hospital. The PET scan machine is part of NDA government’s decision to provide state-of-the-art medical equipment costing ₹41 crore to the NATCO Cancer Centre at the government hospital in Guntur.
Satya Kumar said trial runs of the PET scan have already been done on 50 patients. He said facilities available at the NATCO centre include radiation oncology, surgical, medical, nuclear, and preventive oncology, and pain and palliative care services.
The minister pointed out that the NATCO Trust members had developed the modern cancer centre at the Guntur government hospital some four-and-a-half years ago at a cost of ₹15 crore. In addition, he said the government had appointed 114 doctors, technical experts, paramedical personnel, and other staff for providing healthcare services to the cancer patients.