Date:23/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/23/stories/2006082320370300.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

NIMS gets Radio Iodine Therapy ward

Staff Reporter

White card holders to get due concessions

First such facility to help in treatment of thyroid cancer patients
Work services executed by NIMS civil department

Ward has remote communication, patient entertainment facilities

HYDERABAD: The long pending call for a high-dose Radio Iodine therapy in the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences has been answered finally with the commissioning of a Radio Iodine Therapy ward in the Department of Nuclear Medicine.

This is the first such facility in any Government or public sector hospital in the Sate and will help in treatment of thyroid cancer patients, a NIMS release said here on Tuesday. The work services have been executed by the NIMS civil department as per the guidelines of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, which includes delay tanks, dose administration room and radiation protection measures.

The ward is equipped with remote communication system, patient entertainment amenities, radiation monitoring equipment and safe disposal of radioactive waste, the release said.

NIMS authorities said thyroid cancer cases were hitherto referred to Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai or the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in Bangalore or private hospitals here for high dose radioactive iodine ablation therapy. However, from now onwards, this would not be required. White card holders would get the due concessions.

Senior nuclear medicine physicians Pushpalatha Sudhakar and Zakir Ali would administer the ward, they added.