Hopes run high on national institute status for Regional Cancer Centre

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expedite the project, during his recent visit. The state government will soon follow-up the issue with union ministry of health and family welfare.

The Rs 2023 crore AIIMS cancer institute would be the first of its kind in the country. It would be modelled on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the US, with which the Centre had signed a MoU during the Prime Minister visit in October 2014.

The state government has been pitching hard for it since former union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan responded positively in September 2014. “As health minister, as a doctor and also after personally having seen what is happening in RCC, I would be very happy if we could raise the centre’s status,’’ he said.

Sources said AIIMS institute was Centre’s top priority and with its work having started, the government hopes an early decision on RCC.

The state’s demand is also in line with Centre’s policy of expanding cancer care activities by establishing national institutes, 20 state cancer institutes to enhance tertiary care facilities and 50 tertiary care cancer centres. The state is keen to get RCC project as it would bring investment of Rs 2000 crore.

With the existing RCC campus bursting at the seams, the authorities propose to have the new centre at Pulayanarkotta where the government has promised 15 acres.

Apart from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the RCC is also catering to patients from Maldives, Sri Lanka and even Gulf. Of the 2.5 lakh patients in the state, RCC treats close to 2 lakh including nearly 15,000 new patients in 2012-13.