THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sukrutham, the free cancer treatment programme may have been implemented with much fanfare, but doctors on the ground are keeping their fingers crossed over the success of the scheme considering the severe shortage of funds, equipment and staff mainly in the five medical college hospitals.
Sources said the Government failed to do the required homework before announcing the Rs 300 cr ambitious scheme targeted at 35 lakh people. At present, most radiotherapy departments at the five medical college hospitals are plagued by shortage of man and machine.
The radiotherapy department at MCH Trivandrum which had 14 doctors in 1985, has just seven at the moment even as the number of cancer patients has gone up to 3000-plus annually.
The medical colleges at Kottayam, Kozhikode, Alappuzha and Thrissur too need more doctors and equipment to treat 15,000 new cases annually.
Linear accelerator for advanced radiation therapy is yet to be installed in Thiruvananthpuram and Thrissur medical colleges.
“As first instalment, we have granted Rs 30 cr to five medical colleges, two cancer centres and Ernakulam GH. But the funds are strictly meant for patient care and medicines”, said Health Secretary K.Ellangovan. “We will be sanctioning staff and equipment parallely,” he said while admitting that there was indeed shortage of staff.
Premier institutions like RCC and Malabar Cancer Centre are already bursting at the seams. RCC at present provides free treatment to 22,000 patients under Karunya and CHIS-plus schemes.
“We do expect the load to increase. But despite staff and equipment constraints, we will try to care for the patients,” said Malabar Cancer Centre director Dr Satheeshan B.
As per Government’s own statistics, there are close to 2.5 lakh cancer patients of which at least 2,000 to 2,500 require treatment in each district. A big chunk of these patients avail of treatment at the RCC and MCC.
“It’s not merely staff and equipment, but individual doctors who matter in cancer care institutions. Even the success of such institutions depends on the dedication of doctors,” said former director of RCC Dr M.Krishnan Nair.
