Tamil Nadu - Vellore   

New MRI scanner opened in CMCH

Special Correspondent

"Private initiative in health care should be welcomed to increase medical facilities" "Encourage private initiative in health care"

VELLORE: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Rs.10-crore 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner at the Christian Medical College Hospital here on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Mukherjee said that the improvement in modern medical facilities was significant in a developing country such as India which had high birth, death and infant mortality rates, and a low life expectancy. There had been a significant improvement in medical facilities in India since Independence. Private initiative in health care, which had increased considerably during the period, should be welcomed to increase medical facilities, he said. The Minister said that the CMC Hospital, which had grown from a single-bed hospital in 1900 to a 2112-bed one in 2005 had rendered outstanding service and was one of the premier institutions not only in India but in the whole South-East Asian region.

He said he was happy that the 3 Tesla MRI Scanner would enhance the diagnostic and research capabilities of the hospital.

George M. Chandy, Director of the CMC Hospital, said that the hospital handled about 4,500 out-patients and 2,000 in-patients everyday including those from neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and the Middle East.

The hospital was planning to provide telemedicine facilities shortly, with the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation, to be linked with other hospitals in the country, especially in the North Eastern States. Out of the hospital's annual budget of Rs.173 crores, Rs.53 crores was set aside for subsidising treatment and education. Rekha Cherian, Head of the Department of Radio Diagnosis, said that the 3 Tesla state-of-the-art MRI scanner would enable the Department to perform excellent studies of the whole body and not only of the brain and the joints. One Tesla, a unit to measure the strength of the magnetic field, was equivalent to 10,000 times the earth's magnetic field. The machine operated with a strong magnetic field, radio waves and a computer, she said.

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