Cath Lab in Chennai’s Stanley Medical College Hospital to Remain Open 24×7

Nearly three months after Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital started round the clock angioplasty and stenting procedures for patients coming with heart attacks, Government Stanley Medical College Hospital here has also announced that it will keep its cardiac catheterization lab open for 24 hours. 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. Patients coming to hospital after 2 pm were given medicines to clear the blood clots and made to wait for the angiogram until 7 am the next day when the cath lab opens. Although the wait did not kill people, the outcome could be better with immediate angioplasty and stenting, doctors say.

Compared to hospitals such as Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital, the number of cases done in Stanley cath lab were lesser in the last six months. “We will soon be having a robust lab that will be able to do emergency surgeries and improved outcomes,” said hospital dean Dr S Ponnambala Namasivayam. Health minister C Vijaya Baskar said the state would soon equip medical college hospitals in districts such as Villupuram, Dharmapuri, Thanjavur, Theni and Pudukkottai with state-of-the art centers that will function as tertiary care centers. Now, the state has nearly 10 cath labs and four bi-plane cath labs, where treatment is offered free to patients under the state health insurance scheme. – TOI