Chennai : 2nd TN govt hosp to have 24-hr cath lab

Chennai: Nearly three months after Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital started round-the-clock angioplasty and stenting procedures for patients with heart attacks, Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital has also announced that it will keep its cardiac catheterisation lab always open.

On Friday, when fisheries minister D Jayakumar dedicated a new bi-plane digital subtraction angiogram cath lab (a hybrid facility that can deal with blood vessels in brain, heart and limbs) the hospital announced that it would soon post three doctors, an assistant professor and two postgraduate doctors, along with two nurses and two technicians on duty every night.

So far, patients going to the hospital after 2pm were given medicines to clear blood clots and made to wait for angiogram until 7am the next day when the cath lab opened. Although the wait did not kill people, the outcome could be better with immediate angioplasty and stenting, doctors said.

Compared to hospitals such as Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital, the number of cases done in Stanley cath lab were less in the last six months. “We will soon have a robust lab that will be able to do emergency surgeries with improved outcomes,” said hospital dean Dr S Ponnambala Namasivayam. tnn