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JIPMER to have separate ward for cancer patients

Rajesh Nair

National Cancer Control Board grants Rs.3 crores for the purpose

CANCER TREATMENT: A patient receives treatment through linear accelerator at the Radiotherapy department of JIPMER in Pondicherry. — Photo : T. Singaravelou

PONDICHERRY: A separate ward and 50 beds exclusively for the treatment of cancer patients will soon come up at JIPMER.

As of now the radiotherapy department in JIPMER, which was given the regional cancer centre status by the Union Health Ministry in 2002, accommodates cancer patients in the general ward as there is no separate facility.

The National Cancer Control Board has allocated Rs 3 crore for the purpose of creating a separate ward with 50 beds; Dr K S Reddy, Dean and Head of the Department of Radiotherapy told The Hindu.

When the Super Specialty wing at JIPMER, for which the Health Ministry has recently granted Rs 184 crores, become functional another 50 more beds would be added for the treatment of cancer patients, he added.

The centre has almost all the advanced methods, including a cobalt unit, linear accelerator and high dose rate Brach therapy, for the treatment of cancerous tumors.

Last year with a grant of Rs 2 crore from the National Cancer Control Board the hospital purchased sophisticated endoscopy and ultrasound machines.

Around 4000 new cases were detected every year at the Centre. "Most of the people who come to the hospital are from Tamil Nadu. We even get patients from Chennai and Nagapattinam as the entire treatment is free of cost", he added.

He said the centre would appreciate if individuals or NGO's volunteers help the patients and those accompanying them who come from far away places with providing food and other needs during their stay in the campus. "This has become necessary as many of the patients are extremely poor and it is difficult for them to meet other expenses other than medical", he pointed out.

A majority of the cases detected at the centre were cervical and uterus cancer among the women and in the men it was mostly oral and stomach cancer, he said.

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