About 1094 renal transplantations have so far been done at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, informed Health Minister KC Veeramani on Wednesday.
The Minister was speaking at the launch of a urology training programme at RGGGH, which was a joint effort by Olympus Medical System India, Urological Society of India and Department of Urology, RGGGH and Madras Medical College.
He hailed the efforts taken by the USI and RGGGH to bring the programme to the city government hospital, which is only one of the four training centres chosen across the country. The Minister added that other big corporate hospitals in the state were vying for a chance to launch the programme in their departments.
Explaining the advantages of the new progamme, R Jayaraman, HOD, Urology Department, RGGGH, said that Olympus had donated a Flexible Urethroscope – a state-of-the-art endo-urological equipment worth `50 lakh – for training post-graduates and young urologists across South India as part of the programme. The sophisticated equipment can be used to remove renal stones, ureteral stones and manage prostate enlargement.
“This equipment has new updates that can help endoscopically remove stones and pathologies in the urinary tract that are usually inaccessible,” the department head explained. Even pediatric patients with renal stones can be treated with the new equipment, he said.
Dean of MMC and RGGGH, Dr V Kanagasabai recalled with pride that about 35000 people have undergone free surgeries in four government hospitals in the city so far under the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme at a cost of about `60 crore. In RGGGH alone, surgeries were done at a cost of about `45 crore.
“The equipment can also detect cancer cells and remove them. The company will maintain the equipment for the first two years and will be donated to the hospital later,” the dean said.
Doctors also said that the Department of Urology, started in 1965 in MMC, was one of the first to start a urology course. More than 31,000 outpatients were treated and 2,173 patients underwent urological surgical procedures last year. Over 700 patients benefited from the CM’s health insurance scheme in the department alone.
Dr RM Meyyappan, president, Urological Society of India and resident medical officers R Subbulakshmi and Anand Pratap were also present at the event.