Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

RCC needs more financial help

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Petitions Committee of the Legislative Assembly has stressed the need for a higher level of financial support from the Government for the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) here to ensure that the institution can retain its reputation as one of the best of its kind in the country.

At a press conference on Wednesday after presenting to the Assembly the committee’s report on the RCC, committee chairman Mons Joseph said more than 32,000 cancer patients received treatment from the institution annually. The staff pattern had remained unchanged over the past 15 years, though the number of patients reaching there had increased many times. This should be revised.

He said the funds being provided to the RCC under the head of ‘non-plan expenses’ were too inadequate to ensure timely treatment to the patients. During 2006, the RCC gave free treatment to 4,300 patients, spending Rs.12.5 lakh on medicines and Rs.4.92 crore on diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The institution needed more than Rs.10 crore annually to provide salary to the staff.

The committee proposed that considering the yeoman service provided by the RCC to society, it should be given electricity at subsidised rates and exempted from water tariff as in the case of Government Medical College Hospital, Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology and Sree Avittom Tirunal Hospital.

The committee also said the institution would benefit if it were upgraded to the status of a deemed university. Such a measure would strengthen the RCC’s contributions to cancer research and promote super specialty studies, the report said.

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