The State Government on Saturday said it would welcome more facilities for cancer treatment to come up in the private sector even as the administration is trying to improve conditions in the State-run hospitals.
“Cancer is now a treatable and curable disease, and we need more investment for creating facilities for cancer treatment. We will welcome more such facilities to come up in the private sector,” Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati said while inaugurating the 1st Sum Cancer Conclave at the Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital here.
The cancer conclave organised under the aegis of the State Chapter of Association of Surgeons of India (ASI) and the Odisha Society of Oncology, is being attended by doctors from different parts of Odisha.
Eminent onco-surgeon Dr Krupasindhu Panda and ASI Odisha Chapter president Dr Sreejoy Patnaik also spoke on the occasion while SOA University VC Prof DK Ray presided.
Dr. Panda said the facilities available in Odisha today are awfully inadequate as hardly 500 beds are available for around 70,000 cancer patients. He said that 80 per cent of the patients are not able to get covered by the complete cancer therapy which is required.
Referring to the lifestyle of present generation which greatly contributed to cancer in the young, he said he had recently operated upon a 28-year-old youth, who was suffering from oral cancer caused by consumption of Gutka. Surgery, he said, continues to be the cheapest and best method to treat cancer.
IMS and Sum Hospital surgical oncologist said the conference aims at bridging the gap between latest technologies and the doctors at the peripheral level. The conclave is also being attended by several eminent cancer experts from outside the State.