Daycare facility in AHRCC for cancer patients

CUTTACK: In a step that would give a boost to cancer-care services, the Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC) here is coming up with a daycare facility for patients suffering from the disease in the State.The facility would be established in the New Annexe building on the campus with 10 beds to begin with. The facility would be rendering services ranging from chemotherapy, blood products infusion, minor surgeries, pain and palliative care, and minor implantation procedures, etc.This would come as a boon to a number of patients suffering from cancer as they would not be required to be hospitalised and can go back to their homes as soon as they are finished with the treatment modules.“This would save the patients and their attendants a lot of trouble involving hospital stay as they can walk home the same day. The daycare facility would also render consultations and counselling to the patients and their attendants in order to integrate medical care into their daily lives”, Director, AHRCC, Prof Sukdev Nayak said.The daycare facility would be set up at a cost of `20 lakh, donated by a German-based philanthropist in memory of his son Shovan Bhuyan. The process of readying infrastructure as well as procurement of equipment has gone underway. The facility would be equipped with special chemotherapy beds and chairs, monitors, infusion pumps and equipment, and other machinery for disease management and supportive care. The centre would be operational early next year, Prof Nayak said.The hospital has also ventured into procuring a mammogram to aid detection of breast cancer, which is the single largest cancer among women in the State. As queer as it may appear, the only State-run cancer hospital did not have the most basic screening equipment to aid early detection of breast cancer even after 30 years of its existence.The tendering process has been over and the Mammogram would be installed within next month, Prof Nayak said.Breast cancer accounts for most of the cancers among women and its incidence is rising at an alarming rate. According to AHRCC records, while in 2001-02 about 269 breast cancer cases were reported, it has risen to over 1,511 in 2010-11. The major cause of concern, however, is that breast cancer is no longer considered affliction of the affluent. The number of women from the lower rungs are increasingly suffering from the disease, thanks to growing economic standards and fast adoption of sedentary lifestyle due to availability of modern gadgets.One of the major causes of breast cancer is late marriage and resultant late motherhood coupled with less breastfeeding. Women from across the cross-sections are not only increasingly getting married late, having single children, but also are stopping breastfeeding very early. This makes them vulnerable to developing tumours, doctors say.