Cancer patients, attendants exposed to unhygienic environment during administering of chemotherapy
In one corner of the ground floor of Government Medical College Hospital, Jammu repair/renovation work is going on in full speed for past several days. The construction material and heaps of dust remain scattered all over the place along with other byproducts.
A labourer is seen hammering the wall outside Room No 6. The windowpane, marked in red paint, reads Chemotherapy Room. Inside three patients are receiving chemotherapy in grave violation of the strict protocol. In the absence of trained staff nurses, sometimes the attendants are tutored to administer the dose.
The cancer patients and their attendants are also exposed to unhygienic environment at the time of administering chemotherapy. Worried attendants, faces covered, struggle hard to beat the foul smell. The sewerage pipe, with an outlet near room no 6 overflow on almost daily basis and spread litter in the chemotherapy room. Wearing anxious looks the caretakers are left with no choice but to stare at the dusty wall, in need of urgent repair.
When this correspondent visited the Regional Cancer Centre, restless attendants, monitoring the flow of medicine in the chemotherapy room, claimed, “We have been making lot of noises, requesting the senior faculty members to shift the chemotherapy room to some other place for the time being but all our pleas have fallen on deaf ears in the din of election season.”
Head of the Department Prof Ashutosh Gupta was not present in the centre. One of the office assistants informed, “The HOD is at present out of station to attend a seminar.” However, he refused to disclose the exact location.
In his absence attendants present in the centre told The Pioneer, “No one is listening to us. The hospital authorities here have exposed the cancer patients to such unsafe environs and risking their lives.”
“Nothing can be more ironical than this,” another attendant of the cancer patient said.
Other patients waiting in the narrow aisle outside the OPD rooms of junior doctors revealed, “It is a normal routine here at the Regional Cancer Centre ever since hospital authorities have started renovation work.”
On their part the junior doctors in the Regional cancer centre, on the condition of anonymity told The Pioneer, “before the repair work started we pleaded before the Head of the department and senior hospital authorities to shift the OPD and Chemotherapy room to some other floor of the multi-storey hospital building but nothing was done.”
The junior doctors claimed even they have been facing lot of hardships while examining patients in the OPD but no one is coming to our rescue.
Cancer patients who come from far off places for regular follow up and receiving treatment complained, “We cannot spend hefty money on private treatment and forced by circumstances to visit Government-run hospital. Instead of providing safe treatment the cancer patients are exposed to infection prone environment at the time of receiving chemotherapy.”
Some of the patients claimed they are now contemplating writing to the Indian cancer society and the Union Health Ministry to take note of the criminal negligence on the part of hospital authorities as they have been playing with the lives of cancer patients by not adhering to the strict protocol.
To improve the healthcare facility for cancer patients, mushrooming in the State with alarming frequency, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry had last year sanctioned two Tertiary cancer centres for Jammu & Kashmir. Each centre will cost `45 crore. Of the `45 crore, an amount of `30 crore would be spent on the purchase of PET Scan and linear Accelerator while as `15 crore each would be incurred on the building. Besides, to strengthen the Cancer care facilities across the State, the Health Ministry has also sanctioned one State Cancer Institute (SCI) each for twin capitals — Jammu and Srinagar.