Speaking to media persons after the inspection of the Cancer Wing of the Civil Hospital Shillong, Lyngdoh said that the department will focus on the cause of cancer and will give more attention on setting up more screening camps not just in East Khasi Hills but all over the state.
“Today we had an inspection at the operational cancer wing of the Civil Hospital and through this inspection I am aware that there were a lot of unanswered questions about when this cancer institute at the civil hospital complex became operational” said Lyngdoh.
Lyngdoh said that tremendous effort has been put in to ensure that the hospital reaches out to patients across the board, across gender, across ages and age groups because it has now been established that cancer is one of the biggest killers in the state of Meghalaya.
She added that the doctors at cancer wing Civil Hospital Shillong have done a very good job and the government has come with a mission to combat cancer as a disease on a war footing in order to address this big problem that the state now is faced with.
“We have to focus on screening and early detection and there is a need to inculcate this ability to not just react only after cancer has been detected but the most important is to have an early detection in order to have a proper treatment” she added.
Lyngdoh informed that through the screening program over 2,000 people have already been screened in about 200 camps and the department will upscale these screening camps and extend these screening facilities even to other parts of the state.
“Since East Khasi hills region has registered the highest numbers of registered cancer patient this project take off from East Khasi hills and now we will go for screening on the multiple parameters for detection of cancer so that we have early detection, early treatment and overcome cancer right from a very early stage” said Lyngdoh.
Lyngdoh asserted that apart from treatment there is a need to ensure that the sensitization starts at a very young age especially among the young people particularly and the cancer institute at civil hospital as of now has become a cashless treatment as treatment is being covered under MHIS.
Meanwhile Dr Anisha Mawlong Specialist, HOD Radiation Oncology department informed that the indoor facility of the cancer wing have 90 beds and will take care to all cancer patients which will includes chemotherapy, radiotherapy, intensive care services and soon the radiotherapy will also set up by Tata memorial hospital Mumbai.
Mawlong said that the cancer wing has a single linear accelerator and presently the radiotherapy is being done from the old civil hospital with the telecobalt machine and it has been there since 2006 in order to help detect and prevent at the early stage.
She added that the treatment at the civil hospital is already functional at the cancer wing and has radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery but there are aspects where it requires upgrading in terms of therapy services.
“New cases per year we usually register around 1000 plus and new cases and per day our OPD attendants come across 50-60 patients per day and this includes both new and old and this is alarming” said Dr. Mawlong.
By Our Reporter
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