At PGIMS, cancer patients treated by old machines, nod to buy new ones in limbo

Cancer patients are being treated by over 15-year-old cobalt radiation therapy machines in the state’s lone PGIMS here as a proposal to buy linear escalator machines equipped with the latest technology has been pending at the state authorities for the past several months.

Significantly, a complex is about to be completed on the PGIMS campus to install state-of-art machines to treat cancer patients. More than 100 patients of head and neck cancer come daily to the PGIMS from different parts of the state for radiation therapy.

“The Department of Radiation Oncology at the PGIMS has, at present, three cobalt radiation therapy machines to treat patients. All these were bought over 15 years ago. Since then, many such machines equipped with the latest technology have come to the market, which target only cancerous part of the body during radiation therapy and do not harm nearby normal cells of the patient,” said the sources.

According to experts, the linear escalator machine leaves no major side effect on other parts of the body while the cobalt radiation therapy machine poses risk of damaging normal cells surrounding cancerous tumor in the body. Hence, it is the need of the hour to replace old machines with new ones to provide safer treatment to the patients.

Sources say the demand for the linear escalator machine was first raised over a decade ago when a proposal to buy such machines under a government scheme was moved by the PGIMS authorities to the state. At that time, the machine’s price was Rs 17 crore while the cost has now risen up to 30 per cent. Since high voltage is required to operate the machines, a power sub-station also needs to be set up.

Dr Ashok Chauhan, Head, Department of Radiation Oncology, confirmed that a proposal regarding the purchase of linear escalator machines had been pending with the state authorities for the past six months. “Linear escalator Machine is much safer than cobalt radiation therapy machine. We are confident about getting new machines soon after the approval of the proposal,” Chauhan added.

Dr SK Singhal, Director, PGIMS, said the authorities were determined to provide ultramodern healthcare facilities to patients. Linear escalator machines would soon be installed. Besides, some more facilities would also be introduced in the institute,” Singhal added.