Jammu, Apr 17: The one-hundred-bedded State Cancer Institute in Jammu has not been able to move beyond OPD services even after the passage of more than two-and-a-half months since it was made operational in February this year.
In this regard, Dr Ashutosh, Head, Department of Oncology, said that the required machinery has been ordered and purchase orders have also been placed to make the State Cancer Institute fully functional.
“We are on the job and have placed the orders for required machines to make the State Cancer Institute fully functional,” Dr Ashutosh told Rising Kashmir.
Meanwhile, an official in the Health and Medical Education Department said that neither the required machinery has so far been procured by the State Cancer Institute nor there is the requisite manpower to make the institute fully functional. This is the first cancer institute in Jammu, which is fully dedicated to cancer patients.
State Cancer Institute, the official said, is still confined to only OPD services and that too is limited to mere 20 to 30 patients per day.
“There are three Operation Theatres (OTs) in the high-tech institute but none of these has been made functional due to the non-availability of different machines,” the official said, adding, “It will take at least one year to make the State Cancer Institute fully functional as there are a lot of formalities to procure the machines to make the institute fully functional and provide all treatment to the cancer patients.”
The machines include Pet Scan, Linear Accelerator, City Simulator, Brachy Machine for therapy, Digital X-Ray Machine, Mobile X-Ray Machine and some other equipment.
Dr Ashutosh said that two ultra modern radiation therapy machines will be made functional in both GMC-Jammu and the State Cancer Institute. These therapy machines, he said, have been indigenously developed in India under ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’. He said these machines, also called ‘Radiation Simulator’ machines, will be made available each at GMC-Jammu and the State Cancer Institute to ease the patient load.
