NEW DELHI: In a surprise visit to the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Hospital, Delhi L-G VK Saxena pulled up the officials for inadequate utilisation of recently installed modern Linear Accelerator & CT Simulator Machine (LINAC) - used for precision treatment of the cancer patients - officials said.
The L-G found that only 18 patients received treatment through the machine in last one month as against its capacity of serving up to 15 patients in a single shift due to technical snags, they added.
The LINAC was procured a month ago at a cost of Rs 38.7 crore borne by the Centre and was meant to provide latest radiotherapy to patients.
But it has been facing several teething problems and operational issues, including voltage fluctuations that has led to the machine faltering on several occasions.
With lack of sufficient trained manpower to operate the machine, technicians are called from the United States to repair the machine.
Meanwhile, the L-G has instructed the hospital director to run the LINAC to its optimum capacity for speedy treatment of cancer patients, officials added. The LINAC provides targeted laser-guided beam radiotherapy, which specifically targets the cancer cells only and does not destroy the surrounding healthy tissue.
This 360 degrees rotatory radiotherapy machine can be used for treatment of any type for cancer and is useful for most the common cancers of brain, head, neck, breast, gastrointestinal tumours, male and female genitourinary cancer and paediatumorsmours.
The L-G also asked for more technicians to be trained for operating the machine and instructed that, in the interim, four more personnel be sent to Mumbai for a two-month training immediately.
The annual footfall of patients in the radiotherapy department of LNH is nearly 20,000 while the inpatient count stood at 1,384. These machines will be a boon for cancer patients as treatment with these advanced machines costs around Rs 2 lakh or more in corporate hospitals.