Military Hospital Ružomberok has new state-of-the-art medical equipment, it offers shorter examination time and better diagnosis

The Slovak National Uprising (SNP) Central Military Hospital (CMH) Ružomberok has new medical equipment in its Nuclear Medicine Clinic, thanks to which it will be possible to diagnose military personnel and civilian patients with heart diseases faster and more accurately. Defence Minister Peter Gajdoš and General Secretary of the SVK Ministry of Defence Ján Hoľko attended the official launch ceremony for the new cardiac CZT SPECT gamma camera, as it officially entered service today.

Defence Minister Peter Gajdoš said: “Patients, whether that be service personnel or civilian patients, deserve high quality and effective healthcare, to which the new medical device in our military hospital will definitely contribute.” He went on to explain that the new technology can diagnose potential cardiac diseases much earlier and more accurately, as well as shortening the examination time significantly.

As General Secretary of the SVK Ministry of Defence Ján Hoľko pointed out, among the key priorities of the SVK MOD in the field of soldiers’ care is to provide not only financial and social welfare but also adequate medical care. “We have paid adequate attention to the healthcare issue from the very onset. Therefore, I am very pleased that we have managed to set the processes in place so that here at the Central Military Hospital Ružomberok our soldiers have these state-of-the-art medical departments, to which we can supply high quality medical equipment in order to benefit the medical services for patients, both military personnel and members of the public,” he said.

Director of the SNP Central Military Hospital Ružomberok Peter Vaněk MMedSci said that the new medical device can also be used in a planned preventive programme for SVK Armed Forces service members. “We aim to provide comprehensive preventive diagnosis of oncological, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases in the form of short hospitalisations. In doing so, we would like to partly follow up on the preventive cardiovascular programme that was underway at the CMH Ružomberok in the 1980s. The new cardiac camera has several detectors that are stable and acquire images from multiple angles. Instead of 20 minutes, the scan time takes only 5 minutes, which decreases the patient’s exposure to radiation by up to 50%. At the same time, the result of the examination is more sensitive and the camera also enables 3D image scanning. The device is designed to examine blood flow in the heart muscle, and its functions and vitality,” explained the Chief of the Nuclear Medicine Clinic, Professor Anton Lacko MMedSci PhD.