Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

CMCH to buy digital X-ray equipment

Special Correspondent

FOR ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS: A patient being scanned using the new video endoscope at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on Wednesday. - PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

COIMBATORE: Coimbatore Medical College Hospital will soon begin efforts to buy a digital X-ray equipment that can produce images on the computer and eliminate the need for washing and processing X-ray films. The images will be produced instantly while the X-ray is being taken. This will help in beginning treatment without any loss of time that is normally caused by the wait for X-ray films.

Dean T.P. Kalaniti said on Tuesday that Minister for Rural Industries and legislator from Coimbatore East Constituency Pongalur N. Palanisamy had allocated Rs.20 lakh to the hospital for purchasing the equipment. The allocation had been made from the MLA's Local Area Development Fund. Tenders would be invited soon from suppliers of the equipment. If procured soon, the Coimbatore hospital would be the first among all the medical college hospitals in the State to have this equipment, the Dean said. Even the Government Hospital attached to the Madras Medical College was trying to buy one, he said.

The Dean said the equipment helped in reducing the time needed for developing the images. While the images could be copied to a disc and handed over to the patients, a film could also be provided if they insisted on having one. In this case, the film need not washed or processed. It could be printed directly.

"We plan to install the equipment at the accidents emergency ward so that injured patients need not be moved around much for an X-ray. With the local area network, the doctor could view the images from his cabin and plan the treatment. The digital equipment would also help cut the film cost the hospital now incurred at the rate of Rs.30 a film.

"We take 300 to 500 films a day. So the new equipment will cut the cost substantially," the Dean pointed out.

The hospital had recently purchased video endoscope to detect problems in the upper gastro-intestinal area. The Japanese equipment cost Rs.10 lakh.

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