Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 9: Health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak Monday inaugurated a cancer detection centre at Capital Hospital in the city, in a move to boost cancer care facility in the state.
The centre, which will focus on rapid cancer detection, treatment and follow-up of patients in the initial stage, will function during the working hours of the outpatient department of the hospital from 8 am to noon and from 3 pm to 5 pm.
“The centre will focus on intensifying the detection process of mainly oral and breast cancers in the primary stage as those types of cancers are more prevalent in the state. The staff here will detect, refer and follow-up on patients on a regular basis,” said PKB Patnaik, joint director, Non-Communicable Disease Cell.
Similar cancer detection cells are already functioning in the district headquarters hospitals of Koraput, Malkangiri, Nawarangpur, Balangir and Nuapada since 2013. “After Capital Hospital, we plan to introduce such cancer detection centres in 10 other districts such as Puri, Kendrapada, Angul, Mayurbhanj, Kalahandi, Khurda, Cuttack, Sundergarh, Ganjam and Rayagada. Thtese centres will definitely lessen the load on the lone cancer hospital in the state,” said Nayak.
The cancer detection unit at Capital Hospital will have four doctors, two staff nurses and two technicians, along with a specialist doctor. “We have trained the staff members who will be appointed in the cancer detection unit here at the Acharya Harihara Cancer Hospital in Cuttack. We have also appointed one specialist doctor. All of them will be working for this wing only,” said Patnaik.
The inaugural ceremony was attended, among others, by principal secretary health and family welfare department Aarti Ahuja, director family welfare department Nirmala Dei, director Capital Hospital BB Patnaik and superintendent Binod Mishra.
About four lakh persons are suffering from various types of cancer in the state, with various health institutions detecting nearly 60,000 new cases every year. The mortality due to cancer stands at 15,000 per year in the state, where oral, breast and crevice cancers are more prevalent than others.
