Guntur GGH introduces advanced PET Scan facility

Metro India News | AMARAVATI : 

In a major boost to public healthcare in Andhra Pradesh, the coalition government has introduced a state-of-the-art PET Scan facility at the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Guntur, bringing advanced cancer diagnostic services to poor and middle-class patients free of cost for the first time in a government hospital.

State Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav announced that the highly sophisticated Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scan system, imported from the United States at a cost of nearly Rs 18 crore, has been installed at the NATCO Cancer Centre within Guntur GGH. The facility was formally inaugurated on Wednesday evening by the Health Minister along with Union Minister Pemmasani Chandrasekhar.

The minister described the initiative as a landmark development in cancer treatment and diagnostics in the state. Until now, PET Scan services were largely confined to expensive corporate hospitals, where patients are typically charged around Rs 20,000 per scan. With the new facility at GGH, cancer patients can now access these advanced diagnostic services entirely free under government healthcare support. Currently, PET Scan services are available only in select private hospitals across cities such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Kurnool and Anantapur.

The establishment of the facility in a government teaching hospital is expected to significantly reduce the financial burden on thousands of patients requiring early cancer detection and treatment monitoring. The PET Scan unit forms part of the government’s broader initiative to upgrade the NATCO Cancer Centre into a Level-1 advanced oncology facility.