Srinagar, Apr 03: SKIMS Soura continues to face temporary disruption in Iodine-131 supply as it is the only government hospital in the valley that provides vital radioisotopes to patients.
Daily, SKIMS receives around 20 patients in need of radioisotope treatment; however, only a few patients are currently able to receive it at the institute due to a shortage of supply, which is highly concerning.
Medical Superintendent SKIMS, Dr Farooq Jan agreed that SKIMS is the only hospital in Kashmir that provides isotope therapy to patients. He said the supply of Iodine-131 comes from the Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT), an Industrial Unit of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India.
“The radioisotope comes every week to the institute as it has a short life. However, the BRIT Mumbai has faced some issues with their generators and hence there is erratic availability of Iodine-131 in the country,” Dr Jan said.
SKIMS has issued a public notice announcing the temporary unavailability of iodine-131 (radioisotopes) for the first week of April 2024, as communicated to them by the BRIT.
“As such Iodine -131 based scans done at Nuclear Medicine cannot be undertaken. We request people to cooperate and the inconvenience is regretted,” the notice said.
SKIMS officials stated that while private healthcare charges Rs 1 lakh for radioisotope therapy, SKIMS provides the same treatment for only Rs 3,000.
