Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Friday inaugurated digital mammography machine in Radiology department of Indira Gandhi Medical College & Hospital, Shimla.
The machine has been installed at a cost of Rs 2.4 crore and is one of the best digital mammography machines in northern India.
The Chief Minister said that this was a state of art machine for early detection of breast cancer and it would go a long way in the better treatment of cases of breast cancer. The machine passes lowest possible radiation dose to the patients and has very high detection rate for cancer at an early stage, which was not possible with earlier conventional mammography machines.
This machine has added facility of 3D Tomosynthesis, which could detect hidden lesions within the dense breast. The stereotactic biopsy system supplied with this machine would be handy for final tissue diagnosis with nearly 100 percent accuracy.
Singh said another digital mammography machine would also be installed at Tanda Medical College in Kangra district to benefit the patients of lower parts of the State with this latest technology.
He said the state government was laying special emphasis on providing best health care services to the people of the state for which infrastructure was being created in the health institutions.
The CM said IGMC was one of the premier medical institutions in the State and the government was gearing up to provide more infrastructural and other facilities so that people need not to go out of the state to treatment of various diseases.
He said the state government had opened 100 new health institutions besides filling up 550 posts of doctors and 60 posts of specialists during last three years. Three medical colleges had also been approved by the Government of India at Chamba, Hamirpur & Mandi with financial assistance of Rs. 190 crore each and All India Institute of Medical Sciences was coming up in Bilaspur.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, Mayor, Municipal Corporation, Shimla Sanjay Chauhan and Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar, besides officials were present.