The state government will set up two cancer hospitals in the state, at SSKM Hospital and the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, in association with the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said.
Surgical oncologist Gautam Mukhopadhyay, a former student of the hospital, said the Mumbai institute had set up cancer hospitals in Visakhapatnam and Varanasi. It has also taken over and is now running a cancer hospital in Guwahati.
Around 25 per cent of the cancer patients from the state go to the Mumbai hospital for treatment, Mamata said. Such patients and their families have to struggle hard to get appointments and arrange their stay in Mumbai during the treatment.
The Mumbai hospital is run by the central government. The website of the hospital mentions that it is a grant-in-aid institution under the department of atomic energy.
“Twenty-five per cent of our cancer patients go to the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. They face a lot of difficulties in finding a place to stay there, in establishing contacts and in securing dates in the hospital. Thinking about their plight, we contacted the Tata Memorial Hospital,” the chief minister said.
“Cancer treatment involves many phases and takes about a year. After an initial surgery, the patient needs to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Many patient families fail to carry on with the full treatment at a corporate hospital. They shift to a government hospital mid-way,” said Mukhopadhyay, the clinical director of the department of surgical oncology at Peerless Hospital.
