Tertiary Cancer Care Centre at Burdwan Med College likely to be opened in Feb

KOLKATA: Tertiary Cancer Care Centre, which is coming up at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital with various modern facilities of treatment, is expected to be inaugurated by Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in February next year.

Once it gets operational, thousands of patients from East Burdwan and other adjoining districts, who often visit the city and other states for undergoing treatment, will be able to avail top class facilities at the Tertiary Cancer Care Centre in Burdwan.

The project was started in 2019 but due to Covid pandemic the work got delayed. The project is coming up at an approximate cost of Rs 80 crore. If everything goes as per plan, the cancer hospital will be inaugurated in February.

According to sources, senior officials of the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital have requested the Chief Minister to inaugurate the hospital, which is on the verge of completion.

Health officials believe that cancer patients from East Burdwan and other adjoining districts will be able to avail treatment in Burdwan and the referral cases to the city's hospitals will be reduced.

Even cancer patients from other South Bengal districts may also go to the Tertiary Cancer Care Centre in Burdwan as it will have various modern facilities.

There will be many advanced machines including Telecobalt, Brachytherapy machine, Linear Accelerator, CT Simulator in the hospital.

Prodded by the Chief Minister, the Bengal government has already taken up a series of initiatives to enhance infrastructure for treating cancer patients at the government level.

State government last year announced the setting up of two more cancer hospitals in the state, at SSKM Hospital and the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, in association with the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.

According to a state government data, around 25 per cent of the cancer patients from the state go to the Mumbai hospital for treatment.

Such patients and their families have to struggle hard to get appointments and arrange their stay in Mumbai during the treatment.

It was learnt that a senior official from Burdwan Medical College while attending CMs health related meeting last Monday urged her to set up a proposed Mother and Child Hub in Burdwan which was stuck due to non-availability of land.