Staff shortage kills cancer care centre

The construction work of the resting place for the cancer patients before and after undergoing treatment was completed nearly seven months ago but is yet to be up and running mainly due to lack of availability of 12 to 14 medical staff needed.

The building for the center spread across 12,000 sq ft was constructed by spending Rs 2 crore with Alathur lawmaker P.K. Biju allotting Rs 1 crore from his MP LAD fund.

Jijo Kurian of the Hospital Development Samithi (HDS) came down heavily on the hospital authorities and the principal of the medical college for allegedly delaying the process of allotting staff.

“On several occasio-ns we have noted that some of the officials of health department and the principal are not able to act in time on matters like that of the Day Care Center. Such delay makes us doubt that there might be a consorted effort to help private hospitals,” he told DC.

The nearly 120 patients from Thrissur, Malappuram, and Palakkad visit its oncology department on a daily basis for treatment, and 4,000 new affected patients seek treatment at the hospital in a year.

Mr Biju, who visited the center on Saturday, asked the authorities to make the arrangements to provide furniture and other facilities and open the center within two months.

Nearly Rs 1 crore needed for the remaining facilities could be allotted from both the HDS and Rashtriya Swas-thya Bima Yojana (RSBY) funds, he said.

Hospital Superintendent Dr Mahadevan told DC that the main issue was non-availability of staff, and hopefully it could be resolved soon.