India to gift teletherapy machine to Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital
Kathmandu, May 12
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced that the Indian government would gift Bhabhatron Radioactive Cobalt-60 teletherapy machine to Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital.
Modi announced this during his Nepal visit. The machine costs Rs 1,200,000.
“Bhabhatron Cobalt therapy is the medical use of gamma rays from the radioisotope cobalt-60 to treat cancer,” said Ishwor Shrestha, director at Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital.
“The hospital was in need of radiotherapy machine for treatment of cancer. There is only one Cobalt-60 radio therapy machine in the hospital and additional gift would help provide timely treatment to cancer patients,” he added.
Thanking Indian Prime Minister Modi, Shrestha said the number of patients at the hospital had been increasing, but they had to wait for months to receive treatment..
“There are nearly 200 patients at the hospital waiting for the last three months to receive treatment. Earlier, we had requested Indian embassy to provide the machine,” he added. He further said that the hospital was planning to buy linear accelerator machine to upgrade the health services.
