Latest news with #RGGGH
The Hindu
4 hours ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Aplastic anaemia registry launched in RGGGH
A State-wide Tamil Nadu Aplastic Anaemia Registry (STAR) was recently launched at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH). According to a press release, the focus is to facilitate early referral and diagnosis of suspected aplastic anaemia cases across the State. It is to ensure access to advanced diagnostic tools, including HLA typing, chromosomal breakage studies, Next-generation sequencing and karyotyping early evaluation for bone marrow transplantation (BMT), reducing complications and improving outcomes. It will also focus on promoting early evaluation for bone marrow transplantation, reducing complications and improving outcomes. RGGGH's dean K. Shantharam and expert faculty members launched the registry during a continuing medical education programme on aplastic anaemia, a life threatening blood disorder. Speaking on the occasion, Aruna Rajendran, associate professor and haemato-oncologist, Department of Haematology, BMT Unit, RGGGH and Madras Medical College highlighted the need for increased awareness and accessibility to advanced diagnostic and therapeutic options for underserved patient populations. The registry is a part of a larger Indian Council of Medical Research-led initiative for early diagnosis of aplastic anaemia in India. The registry will provide crucial data to guide clinical decisions, policy frameworks and research funding, while ensuring that no patient is denied due to geography or affordability. RGGGH's BMT Unit, which was inaugurated in January 2018 and funded by the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project, has performed 152 bone marrow transplants till date, with 92% transplant survival rate. In the last three years, 133 BMTs were carried out, averaging around 45 transplants per year. The patients were aged from five months to 68 years. The unit has completed various transplant procedures including 39 autologous transplants, 69 allogeneic matched sibling/matched family donor transplants, 29 matched unrelated donor transplants and 15 haplo-identical transplants. The Paediatric BMT Unit at the Institute of Child Health, which was established in September 2024, has completed 10 transplants. In addition, a new Institute of Paediatric Haematology Oncology and Transplantation, currently under construction, will add 14 BMT beds to meet the growing demand, the release said.
The Hindu
21-07-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Institute of Cardiology at RGGGH: Caring for hearts for half a century
The Institute of Cardiology at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), one of the largest cardiology centres in Tamil Nadu, has grown by leaps and bounds over the past half-century. Handling a high volume of patients with various cardiac conditions every day, the institute, inaugurated in 1972, has evolved significantly over the decades. According to doctors, it has progressed from treating congenital heart diseases to performing coronary interventions, including primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) and complex coronary procedures. K. Shantharam, dean of RGGGH, said that the cardiology department of Madras Medical College-RGGGH is one of the oldest in the State as well as in this part of the country. 'The department, in fact, is a fountainhead for cardiology for the State, as many cardiologists practicing across Tamil Nadu have gone from here. With government support and policies, the department has grown well; its infrastructure has developed, and it has also taken up several cardiac-related studies,' he said. 'We see nearly 17,000 outpatients every month. Our cardiac catheterisation lab runs round the clock, and we perform procedures even at night; a full-fledged team is deployed here in the night as well,' K. Kannan, director, Institute of Cardiology, RGGGH, said. Over the past year (July 2024 to June 2025), the cath lab has handled a total volume of 3,224 interventions, with elective coronary angiography numbering 1,659, and 529 elective percutaneous coronary interventions. Chest pain clinic The institute has been running a dedicated chest pain clinic 24x7. Here, all patients presenting to RGGGH with chest pain are screened. In the past year, 4,728 patients have been screened, and 708 patients with ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) were treated on time. The doctors added that primary PCI was performed for all eligible STEMI patients within the window period (if there are no contraindications) on a 24x7 basis, while structural cardiac interventions, including Atrial Septal Defects device closure and pulmonary balloon valvotomy, are also done. Percutaneous interventions for antenatal rheumatic mitral stenosis — an important cause of maternal mortality in the population — is done, and apart from this, interventions for arrhythmia, including permanent pacemaker implantation, are performed. The institute has spearheaded a number of initiatives. It designed the State STEMI Management Protocol being implemented by the State government. This hub and spoke model of STEMI care is acknowledged as a model for the entire nation, doctors said. In fact, the department regularly takes up catheterisation study for congenital heart diseases. It went ahead and established a separate cardio-obstetrics unit with dedicated echocardiogram. This is not all. The institute functions as the nodal centre for national-level pregnancy registry and has pioneered research programmes in cardio-obstetrics. Doctors said it has been a forerunner across various registries, including STEMI, pulmonary embolism, infective endocarditis, and heart failure registries. The institute trains 14 DM Cardiology postgraduates every year, and its alumni are spread across the world. Now, the department has to graduate to become a quaternary cardiac care centre for the State, Dr. Shantharam said. Infra improvement 'The government is also focusing on improving the infrastructure. One of the plans is to showcase cardiac electrophysiology in the department in the coming months. There is no centre offering cardiac electrophysiology speciality in the government centre in the State, and RGGGH will become one in the coming months. In the future, the department should also look at preventive cardiology,' he said.
New Indian Express
19-07-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
RO units at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital unusable, leaving hundreds high and dry
CHENNAI: Hundreds of patients and their attendants who throng the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital are left with no choice but to buy drinking water from outside as the reverse osmosis (RO) dispenser units installed in the hospital remain unusable. A visit by TNIE and interactions with multiple patients, attendants and staff showed the dispensers are either dysfunctional, or non-functional for most hours of the day, or the water is not suitable for consumption. This has led to a thriving business outside the hospitals with petty shops and individuals selling unpackaged water for Rs 3 to Rs 5 per litre if people bring their own bottles. A canteen located on the hospital premises is also selling such water for Rs 5 per litre, TNIE found. The two RO dispensers in the waiting hall in Tower I and Tower II were not fit for use. One was dysfunctional and the other dispensed water at an extremely slow rate, but users said it was of poor quality The RO dispenser inaugurated between Tower III and Tower II by Health Minister Ma Subramanian in 2023 is operational, but only for specific number of hours during the day. People complained that even the water from this was not of good quality. Sitting at the crowded waiting hall in Tower 2, D Nagamma was waiting on Friday for some good news about her husband's health. Her son walked in with a two-litre packaged water bottle. Buying water was not Nagamma's first choice. She tried to use the RO dispenser in the same hall in vain. 'It doesn't taste good. The filters are not working, and the water is not clean. When I drank, I felt like vomiting.' The condition of dispensers in the waiting halls of the other two towers are not very different. A cleaning staff confirmed that the RO inside Tower 1 stopped functioning last month. Blaming the users for the issue, the staff said, 'The one in Tower 1 was installed recently, but people did not use it properly and broke it,' he alleged. G Muthulekha, who had come to the hospital, said she first bought a 5 litre can from a shop inside for Rs 50 and then keep refilling it with unpackaged water sold Rs 5, a strategy many people followed to save money. K Shantharam, dean, RGGGH, however, said there was no scarcity of quality drinking in the hospital. He said it was possible that people preferred to buy water outside as they did not prefer the taste of the water in the campus. Emphasising that there is adequate water supply for all patients, he said work is under way to install an additional RO dispenser of 500 litre capacity between Tower I and Tower II. He said one more is coming up near the neurosciences building that is under construction.
The Hindu
08-05-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Orthopaedic surgeon Soundarapandian passes away at 94
S. Soundarapandian, orthopaedist and founder of Soundarapandian Bone and Joint Hospital in Anna Nagar, passed away in Chennai on Wednesday. He was 94. He is survived by wife Kothai, two sons and a daughter. His sons, Sivamurugan and Ravisubramaniam, are also orthopaedists. The funeral will be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday. Dr. Soundarapandian used to treat patients till 2020. It was only during the COVID-19 pandemic that he stopped seeing patients, Mohan Rajan, chairman and medical director of Rajan Eye Care Hospital, said. 'He [Dr. Soundarapandian] was instrumental in developing the Institute of Orthopaedics in the Government General Hospital [RGGGH]. In the 1970s and 1980s there were no private hospitals and all the ortho cases would come only to GH. The RGGGH is one of the gold standard institutions that performed complicated surgeries,' he added. Dr. Soundarapandian was born in Thoothukudi on July 4, 1931, and completed his MBBS degree from the Stanley Medical College and MS General Surgery and MS Orthopeadics from the Madras Medical College (MMC). He went on a commonwealth fellowship programme at Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford. He worked at the MMC as a professor of orthopaedics and eventually headed the department, teaching for over 30 years. He founded the Soundarapandian Bone and Joint Hospital in Anna Nagar in 1982. Dr. Mohan Rajan described him as a 'doyen of orthopaedic surgery. Our teacher, mentor...,who enriched and inspired us all with his vast knowledge and experience in the field of orthopaedics'.
The Hindu
28-04-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Teen Clinic, cardiovascular kidney metabolic clinic launched at RGGGH
The Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) has established a weekly 'Teen Clinic' for the well-being of adolescents aged 10 to 19 years. The clinic established at a cost of Rs. 14 lakh will function from 8 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturdays. Along with the Teen Clinic, Health Minister Ma. Subramanian and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister P.K. Sekar Babu inaugurated the Centre of Excellence for Diabetology of which a Cardiovascular Kidney Metabolic (CKM) Clinic has been set up, and a temporal bone dissection skill lab set up at a cost of Rs. 2.40 crore at RGGGH on Monday. The Teen Clinic will offer a multi-disciplinary approach encompassing general medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, nutrition and dermatology and sexually transmitted infections, a press release said. Located on the fifth floor of Tower 3, the clinic will provide comprehensive services aimed at addressing the physical, emotional and social needs of adolescents. It aims at enhancing adolescent health awareness including on healthy lifestyles, dietary guidance for obesity and avoiding junk food, and educating them on the hazards of substance abuse including alcohol, smoking and drugs, with psychological approaches for de-addiction, personality disorders, anxiety and depression. It also aims to promote early intervention on adolescent female health, focussing on obesity, irregular menstrual cycles, polycystic ovarian syndrome and sexually transmitted diseases. At the Centre of Excellence for Diabetology, new laboratory equipment has been procured. Nerve conduction studies to detect neuropathy, sarcopenia assessment for muscle strength, foot assessment, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy for treating painful diabetic neuropathy and full-fledged ophthalmic assessment for early diagnosis of retinopathy are available. In addition, an adult Type 1 diabetes clinic has been set up. The CKM clinic is meant for patients with diabetes who have developed cardiovascular and renal problems. Three specialists - diabetologist, cardiologist and nephrologist - will be available at the clinic to provide comprehensive care under a single roof. Patients can undergo all investigations and receive drug prescriptions at the clinic, doctors said. Through the temporal bone dissection skill lab, training will be imparted to ENT doctors across the State, the Minister said. Health Secretary P. Senthilkumar, National Health Mission, Tamil Nadu Mission Director Arun Thamburaj, Director of Medical Education and Research J. Sangumani, dean of RGGGH K. Shantharam, director and head of department, Institute of Diabetology P. Dharmarajan and director of ENT Suresh Kumar were present.
