5 years on, GMC Srinagar awaits cancer center

Five years on, state government is yet to take a decision on augmenting the cancer treatment facilities at Government Medical College Srinagar and grant a tertiary care cancer center (TCCC) status to it, a facility that could benefit thousands of patients in Kashmir.

Despite having requisite infrastructure to qualify as a tertiary care cancer center, GMC Srinagar has not been granted status of TCCC.

Sources said that proposal for enhancement of cancer treatment facilities had been submitted by GMC Srinagar to state government in 2012. However, despite re-submitting it, there has been no word on the allotment of a TCCC to the medical college, while number of cancer patients continues to rise in Kashmir.

A source at GMC Srinagar said that health and medical education department, which was in receipt of the proposal, was to seek the status of TCCC for GMC Srinagar, but has not done so.

Union health ministry had granted four TCCCs to J&K in 2013, which are yet to come up, due to hassles in getting approval from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). “At GMC Srinagar, we already have the radiation oncology department, duly approved by AERB. At other sites, it would take many years before they could come even near to establishing radiation equipment due to strict regulations,” said a senior faculty member at GMC Srinagar.

“About 60 percent of malignancies are diagnosed in GMC Srinagar associated hospitals, but we lack a comprehensive cancer treatment center here,” said a senior faculty member of the college.

“A comprehensive cancer center could easily be set up at GMC Srinagar but the proposal has been gathering dust,” he said.

The proposal, as per the source, details out how all the allied specialties of cancer treatment, such as hematology, blood bank, pathology, microbiology etc were already existent in GMC Srinagar, along with a well equipped radiation oncology department.

The granting of a TCCC to GMC Srinagar, a source at the medical college said, would help develop departments of medical oncology, surgical oncology and radiation oncology as full-fledged departments in terms of infrastructure and equipment.

He said that much of the manpower was already available, and what was lacking stood created and referred to public service commission.

“If a TCCC was allotted to GMC Srinagar, a cancer patient would have no need to go out of SMHS hospital. Everything required, from a tumor board to the treatment planning and execution would be available within a distance of 500 meters, between GMC Srinagar, SMHS Hospital and Super-Specialty Hospital,” said a GMC Srinagar official.

Hit by floods in 2014, the radiation oncology department of SMHS Hospital became functional recently.

Currently, the department has a CT-Simulator, Brachytheraphy and Cobalt Unit.

Doctors at the hospital said that although, 60 percent of cancer patients need radiotherapy, they still had to go out of the hospital as other facilities were not available.

The center also lacked requisite bed strength and augmentation of infrastructure would have helped provide the required capacity, doctors said.

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