Kochi: Kerala which is witnessing a surge in cancer cases is equipped to offer world-class treatment to patients and on the strength of this, it can draw patients from abroad as well, according to eminent oncologist Dr S. Parameswaran who had training in CMC Vellore, New Zealand and was visiting professor in University of California and Stanford University.
He is attending the Kerala Health Tourism Summit here. Dr Parameswaran retired from Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, this year after serving the premier institution for 32 years.
He said the expertise and infrastructure, including equipment, available in tertiary care hospitals for diagnosis and treatment here, coupled with the low cost of treatment is a great advantage in the current circumstances.
“We have everything for radiation treatment, chemotherapy and hormone therapy which was not the case a decade ago,” he said.
“Almost all medicines are available here. For costly popular drugs produced by foreign multinationals, quality affordable substitutes are available here. An important drug in breast cancer care, Tamoxifen, is produced by over a dozen companies in the country.
The hospitals in the state should focus on patients from the Gulf, Maldives, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Singapore, Malaysia etc.
Even the backlog in National Health Service (NHS) of England can be made use of,” said Dr Parameswaran who currently serves as medical director and chief of oncology at Indo-American Hospital at Vaikom near here.
Dr Parameswaran also said that Kerala has good air connectivity and facility for quality stay. “Keeping the spirits up of cancer patients is important and tourism offers great scope in this which can be made use of by Kerala having scenic locales,” he said.
Dr Parameswaran said that due to the increased facilities, the flow of patients from the state to outside has come down now. He also observed that the number of cervical cancer cases too has come down drastically in the state.
