Chief Minister N. Rangasamy on Sunday said steps have been taken to install a CT scanner in Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Research Institute in Puducherry, while the defunct one in the government general hospital had been rectified.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of signing a MoU between Apollo Hospitals, Chennai and Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services, he said government had initiated steps to fill around 140 vacant posts of health workers to ensure speedy public health care in government hospitals.
He said his government wanted to make specialised health care services at the government hospital by inking MOUs with leading hospitals like Apollo so patients needing specialist treatment and surgeries could have them locally instead of rushing to Chennai.
Senior Joint Replacement and Anthroscopy Surgeon of Apollo hospital Dr. Madan Mohan Reddy and Director of Health services Dr K. V. Raman signed the MoU in the presence of the Chief Minister for knee joint replacement and knee replacement surgeries at the government hospital free of cost.
Dr. Reddy, who heads the team of doctors from Apollo hospital said preliminary screening would be done for arthritis and post the patients for surgery in the subsequent week after all pre operative formalities. Four patients a month would be taken up for surgeries here.
The Health department would provide infrastructure along with implants for every knee joint replacement which would cost around Rs. one lakh. Doctors attached to the orthopedic department here would monitor the patients. Training would also be given to doctors.
Chief Minister said that government had inked an MoU with Apollo to treat children born with congenital cardiac defects.
Of 44 babies diagnosed, steps had been taken to treat 11 by specialists from Apollo hospital at the government GH in Puducherry.
Dr. Madan Mohan Reddy said 60,000 joint knee replacements surgeries had been performed in India in 2012 against 9,000 in 2003. With developments in surgical technology, acceptance by patients and improvement in other aspects of health care was the reason for the rise in the figure of replacements. All the patients were above 55 years of age.
Published - September 08, 2013 04:27 pm IST
