National Cancer Institute—Country’s largest cancer hospital all set to commence in NCR
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Jhajjar, Haryana is ready to commence the OPD services from Tuesday. The hospital is India’s largest cancer hospital.
The construction and installation work in the OPD block of the hospital is finished and by Monday, a day before the start of the OPD, the finishing touches would be given to enable its smooth launch and functioning. NCI is being hailed as India's largest public funded hospital project to come about in decades and built at a whopping cost of Rs 2, 035 crore.
“The civil work for the 710-bedded hospital project is done and by mid-January, indoor admissions will also be opened to public in phased manner," said Dr Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS assigned with running the hospital.
The hospital will begin in three phases. Expected to start from January to March, during the first phase the OPD services and 250 beds will be available and by the end of 2019, indoor admission will be raised to 500 beds. In another one year it is planned to become fully operational.
NCI will reduce the load of AIIMS' existing cancer hospital which sees 1300 patients every day. Because of lack of facilities, only about 400 get treatment, tell doctors. "In the last few decades, incidence of cancer has risen drastically but the treatment facilities in public sector have remained static. On the other hand, cancer treatment in private hospitals is unaffordable for most patients," an AIIMS oncologist said.
Dr G K Rath, who is also the head of AIIMS’ Institute Rotary Cancer hospital, is heading the NCI. According to sources, the NCI has bought two linear accelerators—device used for external radiation worth Rs 48 crore, besides CT scan and x-ray machines.
A state-of-the-art lab that can process 60,000 samples is also ready.
NCI will act as the nodal hospital for cancer care in India and will have connections with all regional cancer centres and other institutes in the country.
Cancer is the second major lethal ailment in India. Studies show that the number of cases of this disease has doubled from 5.5 lakh in 1990 to 10.6 lakh in 2016 comprising patients of stomach cancer (9%), breast cancer (8.2%), lung cancer (7.5%), lip and oral cavity cancer (7.2%), pharynx cancer other than nasopharynx (6.8%), colon and rectum cancer (5.8%), leukaemia (5.2%), and cervical cancer (5.2%).
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