Punjab's Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital to be operational by Nov: Chief Secy

Chandigarh, Aug 20 (IANS) Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on Friday reviewed the progress of the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre at Medicity in New Chandigarh near here and was assured that the ultra-modern cancer tertiary care facility will be made operational by November.

On her visit to the construction site, she was apprised that the ambitious project is in the advanced stage of completion, and directed all the departments concerned to extend all requisite assistance for its early opening.

The Chief Secretary said the 300-bed state of the art hospital will act as a tertiary care centre for the entire northern region, comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

"The hospital will start radiotherapy, radiology, CT scan, MRI, ultrasound, x-ray, mammography, medical oncology, chemotherapy, day-care ward, pathology and lab facilities, minor OT, besides initiating OPD services such as surgical oncology, medical oncology, radiation oncology, palliative care preventive oncology," she said, adding these facilities will be available for public from November onwards.

Taking stock of the works being executed at the hospital site, she said the Amarinder Singh government is fully committed to provide the best possible healthcare facilities to its citizens and the Chief Minister has desired to make this medical facility available to the people at the earliest.

Mahajan said that the project, a unit of Tata Memorial Centre Mumbai, under the Department of Atomic Energy, is being set up with a sanctioned cost of Rs 663.74 crore in the built-up area of 40,545 square metres for which 50 acres of land has been provided free of cost by the Punjab government.

The cancer care centre will be equipped with high-end diagnostic and treatment facilities such as two linear accelerator, brachytherapy, PECT CT, bone marrow transplant, CT simulator, MR simulator, interventional radiology and surgical facilities, besides daycare centre, ICU and recovery units, said Mahajan.

It will be fully IT-based with electronic medical records facility, she said, adding that it will also be interlinked with all the Tata Memorial Centres located across the country.

This will help the patients of this region to get online superspecialty consultation for managing various types of cancer ailments under the disease management groups, she said.

Besides residential hostels for doctors and nurses and residential accommodation for faculty, the hospital also offers stay facilities for cancer patients in the specially-built 'dharamshala', she said.

On completion, the project will not only make healthcare facilities accessible to the region but will also help in promoting medical tourism as the state government was developing Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Mohali as hubs for medical tourism through various initiatives.

The Medicity, which comprises sites for multispecialty and superspecialty hospitals, medical research institutes and housing facilities for doctors and other staff, in New Chandigarh, spreads over 250 acres in the immediate vicinity of the PGIMER.

The Chief Secretary also said two state-of-the-art cancer hospitals have already been functioning in the state at Sangrur and Bathinda in the Malwa region.

While the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital in Sangrur has treated more than 23,000 cancer patients till date, the advanced cancer diagnosis, treatment and research centre in Bathinda has cured more than 2,500 cancer cases since its inception.

Mahajan also said that a tertiary cancer centre was also being established in Fazilka to further strengthen cancer treatment facilities in the state. "Major civil work has been completed and it is likely to start operation next year," she said.

More than 65,000 cancer patients have been provided cashless treatment under the Mukh Mantri Punjab Cancer Rahat Kosh Scheme at various cancer hospitals in the state, she added.