Cancer Treatment Centers in Kerala Not fully equipped

4 November 2013
Kochi

With cancer treatment centres in government medical colleges and public hospitals across the State poorly equipped and facing a staff shortage, it is a long wait for patients to get treatment. Delayed treatment often has disastrous consequences for them.

The only hope for patients is the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram and the Malabar Cancer Centre in Thalassery. But not all can make it to these autonomous hospitals, which are taking much of the caseload now.

If the medical college and other government hospitals give proper care, the RCC will not have to take this much load, say a doctor at this hospital and another of a medical college. Cancer treatment put the patients into tremendous physical, mental and financial strain. Hence, getting treatment at a place near home will be a blessing.

Every government medical college has an oncology department, which, however, is not fully equipped. The patients have to wait for months to get radiation treatment. A Professor of Radiation Oncology says the waiting period in the Thrissur medical college hospital is about three months. Other medical college hospitals have similar or longer waiting periods.

Even while the government voices its concern for cancer care, little gets done in public hospitals, where thousands of new cancer cases are reported every year. In the Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital, 3,000 new cases are reported every year. The Kozhikode medical college hospital gets 4,500 new cases every year, the Kottayam hospital 3,000, Thrissur 2,500 and Alappuzha 1,000 to 1,500.

Source– http://www.thehindu.com

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