Govt approves Bone Bank proposal
The State Government on Wednesday announced to provide free treatment to poor people needing bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy at the bone marrow transplant unit established at the SCB Medical College Hospital recently.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held under chairmanship of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra at the State Secretariat.
“Bone marrow has been successfully transplanted in two patients since the unit established at the Hematology department on April 30. In the meeting it was decided that poor patients will be provided this treatment free-of-cost for a year,” a Press release said.
It informed that eight medicine producing companies have agreed to bear treatment cost of at least 10 patients. Earlier in the day, the State Government also approved a proposal of the Department to set up a Bone Bank at the premiere medical college of the State.
A high-level meeting chaired by Mohapatra had prepared a blueprint and proposed to the State Government to this effect. As per records, as many as 302 trauma cases, 60 cancer patients and 58 infection cases at the SCBMCH needed bone graft last year. The number could be many times higher if the three medical colleges and other hospitals in the State are taken into consideration.
The bank at SCBMCH will be the first in the Eastern region and fifth in India after AIIMS, New Delhi; Chennai Medical College; Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai and Ganga Hospital, Chennai.
According to sources, establishment of the Bone Bank will not entail high expenditure. The bank would be set at an expense of Rs 25 lakhs, requiring a deep freezer, lylophilisation apparatus and other equipment for sterilising and disinfecting harvested bones.
The Bone Bank would be set up at the Department of Biochemistry, source said.The facility will adopt both wet processing and dry processing methods to preserve bones in structural as well as granular forms. The bones would be harvested from amputated parts of patients, who have suffered serious accidents and trauma where saving the limbs is not possible.
There are around two to three such amputations at the SCBMCH every day while the number could be significantly higher if all the hospitals in the Twin city are taken into consideration.
The Health Department has constituted a four-member committee, headed by Dean and Superintendent of SCBMCH as Chairman with the Director of Acharya Harihar Cancer Research Institute, and two orthopedic specialists of SCBMCH Dr Atanu Mohanty and Dr Tanmay Mohanty as other members, to look into establishment of the Bone Bank.
