Mamata announces setting up of 2 more cancer hosps in state
KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced the setting up of two more cancer hospitals in the state. The Bengal government will set up cancer hospitals in collaboration with Tata Memorial. The two hospitals will come up at SSKM and North Bengal Medical College and Hospital.
While holding a press conference at Nabanna, the Chief Minister said: "Around 25 per cent of cancer patients from the state go to Mumbai's Tata Memorial for treatment. But they face many difficulties there. Sometimes they face inconvenience in arranging food and accommodation while on other occasions, they face problems in getting appointments with doctors. So, we had taken up the matter with the authorities of Tata Memorial and decided to set up two hospitals in the state itself."
She maintained: "People of Bengal will no longer have to travel outside the state for cancer treatment with the setting up of two more hospitals here. One will come up at SSKM in Kolkata and the other will be at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital."
The decision to set up a cancer hospital at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital will immensely benefit people from North Bengal as they do not even have to travel to Kolkata for cancer treatment.
There is already the Tata Memorial Centre in Rajarhat. Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) is another important cancer care hospital and research institute in Kolkata and the institute's OPD services from the state-of-the-art 460 bedded second campus at Rajarhat has begun operations from August 2020.
Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital is a government-run hospital under the Government of India's Department of Atomic Energy. The treatment is free of cost for the majority of patients and highly subsidised for others. The one at Rajarhat is not a government hospital but run by a Tata trust and the treatment is not free. So, the state government is keen to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with Mumbai's Tata Memorial hospital to set up the two new cancer hospitals in the state to ensure similar benefits to people here.
