Their Majesties the King and Queen presided over the opening of the Navamindrapobitr 84th Anniversary Building commemorating His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great at Siriraj Hospital on Wednesday.
The new 25-storey building with two underground levels houses the MRI-LINAC, a groundbreaking machine that is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, which operates real-time diagnostic-grade visualisation of tumours and surrounding normal organs before, during and after radiation therapy, without any extra radiation doses.
The King initially donated 100 million baht toward the project and later Their Majesties made another 700-million-baht donation. The building is also the location of the Siriraj Radiation Oncology Centre, the Diagnostics Radiology and the Siriraj Breast Imaging facility.
The new building, capable of handling 500,000 out-patients and about 20,000 in-patients a year, replaced a complex of three old ones.
On hand to welcome Their Majesties yesterday was Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn who chairs the fund-raising committee for the construction of the building.
Their Majesties the King and Queen observe the cutting-edge Magnetic Resonance Imaging Guided Linear Accelerator (MRI-LINAC) machine for radiation therapy.
His Majesty the King presents a commemorative medal to Dr. Somsak Leeswadtrakul who made contributions to the hospital.
People wait to catch a glimpse of Their Majesties the King and Queen.