The telestroke clinic at the District General Hospital is likely to resume its functioning this month. The clinic had stopped functioning almost a year ago after the government failed to supply the clot buster known as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to the hospital.
The clinic was started with much fanfare in December 2015 with limited quantity of the medicine - five vials to start with. It was replenished with three more vials and then discontinued.
Because of the government’s failure in supplying the medicine, the clinic had to refer patients to other centres.
The government has sent 10 vials of tPA to the clinic now. “Training has to be imparted to a new set of doctors in the institution, and peripheral doctors too, so that the clinic becomes a lifesaver,” said Dr. G. Manoj, physician in-charge of the clinic.
The medicine is provided free of cost to patients. It works by dissolving clot and improving blood flow to the part of the brain deprived of the flow.
A vial of the medicine costs ₹45,000 and it was bought by the Kerala State Medical Services Corporation as part of starting telestroke clinics in association with public and private institutions where stroke medicine experts were available.
Stroke clinics were part of the measures for the treatment of non-communicable diseases which were found to be increasing as per the data collected by Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) clinics over the past four years.
Facilities for the telestroke clinic at the General Hospital were set up with the technical support of the stroke medicine department of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
Many doctors in the peripheral government institutions had also been trained in identifying stroke victims and directing them to the General Hospital for treatment.
