KOCHI: Ernakulam District Collector Muhammed Y Safirulla who is also the special officer for the Cochin Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) on Tuesday said that the construction work on the CCRC will start on January one. He said that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the centre will be submitted to Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) by August 30 and the tender proceedings will be started in October. The tender will be awarded in December and the works will be started in January. The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday chaired by Health Additional Chief Secretary Rajeev Sadanandan and attended among others Mr Safirulla, RCC Director Dr Paul Sebastian and CCRC medical superintendent Dr P.G. Balagopal.
Mr Safirulla said that the final DPR for the Rs 395 crore project is ready. A total of Rs 235 crore will be spent on construction works and Rs 160 crore on equipment and furniture. He also said that the project has got preliminary environmental clearance and the final different clearances with various departments is pending.
The Special Officer said that the centre will have facility for 400 inpatients and 800 outpatients. Apart from that 50 beds will be set apart for chemotherapy treatment. There will be eight operation theatres, a fully equipped nuclear medicine wing, radiation oncology wing and the most modern LINAC machine.
The cancer centre will come up in 5 lakh square feet building on a 12 acre plot. The four wings of the centre will be medical, services, administration and palliative and the buildings will be environment-friendly and will have 15 lifts. There will be central air-conditioning, 24-hour power supply, water storage systems, parking facility for 350 cars, modern hospital information system, emergency and casualty wings, community oncology, library and cancer registry apart from palliative care.
Mr Safirulla noted that so far 905 patients have sought treatment at the centre which is situated on the campus of the Ernakulam Government Medical College. A total of 3129 patients so far consulted at the outpatient wing. A total of 525 chemotherapies have been conducted at the six bed chemo ward. In the surgical oncology wing a total of 212 small surgeries have been conducted with the help of radiologists of the medical college. The e-health wing of the State Government is also functioning at the cancer centre which is now functioning from the pay ward of the medical college.
