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Dhaka Friday,  Mar 29, 2024

Proposes Eight New Nuclear Medicine Centres Across Country

Rafiqul Bashar, Nuclear Asia

The Bangladesh Government is going to set up eight new branches of the elite Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) across the country to make the state-of-the-art nuclear medicine technologies accessible to the masses at a low cost. The hospitals will have nuclear medicine diagnostic and treatment services for diseases like cancer and diagnose diseases of thyroid, brain, bone, heart, breast, lung, heart, kidney and so on.

The Executive Committee on National Economic Council (ECNEC) has recently allocated TK 582 crores (USD 70 Million) for this plan. As per the proposal, the medical facilities will be operational within the next three years. Following this, the government intends to expand this feature to other medical colleges as soon as possible.

Science and Technology Secretary Md. Anwar Hossain said: “This initiative has been taken so that all people can get this service easily. Local people will be able to use these modern technology for diagnosis and treatment of deadly diseases.”

The sites selected for the 8 hospitals are Sher-e-Bangla Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College of Agargaon, National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital of Dhaka; Sheikh Sayera Khatun Medical College of Gopalganj; and the medical colleges of Pabna, Kustia, Jessore, Cox’s bazaar and Shatkhira. In the next phase INMAS will expand its facilities to the hospitals of Noakhali, Rangamati, Chittagong, Narayanganj, Gazipur, Tangail, Jamalpur and Patuakhali.

According to the Planning Commission, following this project nuclear medicine will be available to people at a low cost. This will also extend the facilities to researchers studying nuclear sciences and in turn would have a positive effect on the health care sector of the country.

Presently, the officials involved with the project told Nuclear Asia, the nuclear medicine facility is available in only 14 medical colleges of the country and the proposal is to take the number to 23. Plans are also afoot to extend the service to all the major hospitals at district level in all the 64 districts.

Director of National Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (NINMAS), Dr. Nurun Nahar also contended that the initiative is taken to bring the high end medical services to the doorsteps of the masses. “People will not have to rush to Dhaka or other big cities to avail the benefits of nuclear medicine. Thus, it will mitigate sufferings of the patients and provide them with quality diagnosis and treatment to various diseases,” Dr Nahar added. The hospital is situated at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).

The 8 new INMAS will have ultra-modern technologies in the field of nuclear medicine. These institutes will house Spect-CT, Spect, BMD, Radio Imunisasi Uptake system, Color Doppler machine, automatic Gamma counter, Thyroid camera, Thyroid uptake system and so on. INMAS, Dhaka is a Bangladesh Government Organization under Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC). This is the first nuclear medicine center of the country was established in 1962 in Dhaka Medical College Campus.

The new INMAS will offer diagnostic and treatment services for different diseases of bone, kidney, thyroid gland, brain and liver. Both static and dynamic Scintigraphy tests will be available at the nuclear medicine facilities. Scintigraphy is a diagnostic test in nuclear medicine, where radioisotopes attached to drugs that travel to a specific organ or tissue (radiopharmaceuticals) are taken internally and the emitted gamma radiation is captured by external detectors (gamma cameras) to form two-dimensional images.

With the allocated money, each of the 8 INMAS will build their own 6-storied building along with other infrastructure, buy local and international devices, and recruit 26 personnel.

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