Cancer treatment facilities atGovernment Medical College (GMC) Srinagar are being run from three hospitalsmaking patients suffer, even as a proposal for setting up a full-fledged centerfor treatment of the deadly disease is gathering dust for past one decade.
A senior doctor said if a patient is diagnosed with cancer atany of the GMC hospitals his/her treatment often takes place at three differenthospitals.
For seeking opinion ofsurgical oncologist, the patient has to go to Super Specialty Hospital (SSH)while as for radiation oncology the patient will need to go to SMHS Hospital,the doctor said. For medical oncology the services are available at KashmirNursing Home, he added.
“Thisoften puts patients to inconvenience who are seen running between thedepartments of these different hospitals,” said the doctor.
In absence of afull-fledged cancer center the departments involved in treatment of cancer arebeing run from “whatever little space is available”, said the doctor.
At SMHS Hospital, “acouple of beds” had been dedicated for cancer patients in Ward 11, according toanother doctor, adding in SSH there is day care facility in medical oncologyand a few cancer surgeries are being carried out there. Similarly, OPD formedical oncology is being run at Sarai in SMHS Hospital and Kashmir NursingHome while as radiation oncology is run in a separate building in the premisesof SMHS Hospital, said the doctor.
In 2013, Union healthministry approved three tertiary care cancer centers to J&K, each with afunding of Rs 45 crore. These centers with all the modern facilities for cancertreatment were to come at three designated district hospitals.
However, owing to dearthof manpower and requisite expertise, none of these centers have yet come up. Onthe other hand, a source in health and medical education department said, theGMC has been struggling to get approval of the tertiary care cancer center(TCCC), which could have helped medical college bring its multi-specialties forcancer treatment under one roof.
“Many proposals have been moved over the past one decade byGMC Srinagar seeking allocation of a cancer center. A fresh proposal was sentto the government two years ago. But nothing has been done by so far,” thesource said.
He added that a “simplesolution” would have been to seek permission to transfer funds of one of theTCCC to GMC Srinagar in interest of patient care. “But health and medicaleducation department has not taken up the matter with government of India,” hesaid.
Principal GMC Srinagar,Prof Samia Rashid said that the government had “agreed in principle” toallocate a department of nuclear medicine to the GMC.
“It will help in enhancing the cancer treatment facilitiesat the medical college,” said Prof Saima.