Thiruvananthapuram: Colours have been splashed onto the walls of the new paediatric oncology outpatient block at the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) with the hope that it will give the grim reality of cancer a break for its patient-visitors. The building, completed in five months with the support of NRI association Federation of Malayali Association of America (FOMA), has been designed with characters like Donald Duck, Tom&Jerry, Ben 10 and Angry Birds painted on the walls.
The number of child cancer patients increases by a small number every year, according to Dr P Kusumakumari, additional director, RCC. This includes babies as young as a few days’ old. It is to allay the fears of older children that the ambience was created. “The older children would be able to understand the seriousness of their condition,” she says. The new block has a built up area of 3200 sq. ft. with 5 OP rooms, two counselling rooms, one observation room and waiting area. The previous OP block for children was relatively congested with just two OP rooms and no separate counselling room.
Work on the Rs 85-lakh block started on March 3 this year and was completed by August 22, six months ahead of the 1-year deadline. Inaugurating the block, Health Minister K.K. Shailaja hailed the role played by FOMA and said this should inspire other NRI associations. Such associations hesitate to fund government projects fearing red tapism, an official of the hospital said. RCC director Dr Paul Sebastian presided. FOMA national president Anandan Niravel and councillor S.S. Sindhu were also present.
