25 August 2013
Along with raising corporate donations for providing subsidised treatments to cancer patients Tata Medical Centre here is planning to come up with a bio-bank that will store tissues of cancer patients for furthering research in the discipline, authorities of the cancer hospital said here on Saturday.
“The bio-bank will store cancer tissues for further research...with the consent of the patients of course. The project is set to start immediately but the construction will be completed in three years. It is a Rs. 60-crore project,” Mammen Chandy, director of Tata Medical Centre, told journalists at the sidelines of a fund-raising event in the city.
20 scientists in it
The hospital has plans to involve about 20 scientists in the new research facility where emphasis will also be on “preventive oncology” along with the bio-bank, he has added.
The medical facility will also start expansion work for the second phase of cancer research hospital by October this year, Mr. Chandy said, adding that Rs. 200 crore would be required for the expansion work on the 13-acre premises of the hospital on the city’s north-eastern fringes.
“The hospital, where about fifty per cent of its capacity is used to treat underprivileged patients, is unable to meet the demands of cancer patients from the eastern region as it receives about 600 new patients every day,” said Geeta Gopalakrishnan Director (Donor Relationships) of the hospital.
Many patients from West Bengal
“70 per cent of our patients are from West Bengal, 15 per cent from neighbouring States like Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar...about 5 percent from Bangladesh and one or two from Pakistan,” said Mr. Chandy adding that the medical centre had also emerged as the primary referral hospital for cancer patients from Bhutan.
Renowned poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar expressed concern that the country’s poor continued to be ignored when it came to advanced treatment facilities.
“They [the poor] are not very important to certain people...and that is why health for the poor has never been a concern,” said Mr Akhtar.
Emphasising the need for healthier and cleaner cities, he said that the government agencies should realise that it was their responsibility to provide cleaner, healthier and hygienic cities to the citizens.
Published by: The Hindu