THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A modern digital mammography unit was originally scheduled to be installed at the District Model Hospital, Peroorkada, here in association with the Rotary Club of Trivandrum Kowdiar (RCOTK). However, red tapism ensured that the facility couldn’t come up at the DMOH. But the loss suffered by the District Model Hospital -- until now it lacks a digital mammography unit -- has worked to the advantage of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the digital mammography unit at 10am on Tuesday in the presence of Health Minister K K Shailaja. During 2017-18, the Rotary district and Kowdiar Rotary Club conducted a study which found that Thiruvananthapuram district had the highest incidence of breast cancer in the country. This led them to launch an innovative project, Hospital Projects and Equipment (HOPE) to setup a digital mammography unit at DMOH, Peroorkada.
Accordingly, the Rotarians invested Rs5 lakh on setting up the infrastructure in room numbers 49 and 50 on the basement floor at the Peroorkada hospital. It was decided that RCOTK will set up and maintain the digital mammography unit on its own to ensure and sustain operational efficiency. These included paying salaries of five support staff (two radiographers, a female office secretary cum counsellor and two attenders) and footing the entire expenses.
A nominal fee of Rs500-Rs800 was to be collected from patients depending on their economic status. This was nominal compared to what a leading private hospital at Anayara and the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, were charging patients -- Rs3,500 and Rs1,450, respectively with a waiting period stretching several months. The other government hospitals and private hospitals are currently having analog mammogram machines. But when there was inordinate delay in setting up the unit, the RCOTK decided to take up the project at the Thiruvananthapuram MCH.
“We will definitely be coming up with further developments at the DMOH as a new casualty wing is coming up there. The RCOTK had difficulty in maintaining the mammography unit and its five staff round-the-year. So it was decided to take it up at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital,” P Mangalanandan, president, Rotary Club of Trivandrum Kowdiar Charitable Society, told TNIE.A senior doctor at the DMOH, who feigned ignorance about HOPE, opined that by setting up the mammography unit at the MCH, more patients will be able to avail themselves of its services.
The RCOTK authorities were gratified to see that on the eve of the official inauguration, five patients had availed themselves of the services of the new digital mammography unit. The RCOTK has also decided to give 35 ventilators to the health department. Five have already been donated to the Kottayam Medical College.