Mumbai: City’s new cancer institute sees surge in patients

Dockyardrsquos Punyashlok Alhaiyabai Holkar Head and Neck Cancer Institute India HNCII has seen 13574 patients on an OPD basis since August when it began its operations Amjad Khan a rickshaw driver in his mid40s arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday from Uttar Pradesh for cancer treatment for his uncle Five years ago he was also diagnosed with cancer and had his surgery done at Tata Memorial Hospital TMHThis time instead of TMH he chose HNCII for his relative It took him more than 24 hrs to reach Mumbai The last time he was here he was operated on at TMH by Dr Sultan Pradhan who now runs this new cancer institute ldquoThere arenrsquot many good cancer treatment hospitals back homerdquo he saidWhile it was the familiarity with the doctor in charge that brought him to the Holkar hospital another reason is the long waiting time at TMH The HNCII hospital was established on BMC land where a maternity home was earlier situated ldquoIt is based on publicprivate partnership our rates are the same as Tata Hospital ratesrdquo said Reshma Naidu trustee of CanCare trust which runs the hospital and daughter of Dr PradhanThe hospital comes under the Public Trusts BPT Act 1950The hospital comes under the Public Trusts BPT Act 1950 under which charitable trusts operating hospitals nursing homes or maternity homes must contribute two per cent of their income to the Indigent Patient Fund IPF in return for government subsidies on land taxes electricity and building regulationsThis fund is then used to reserve 10 per cent of operational beds for indigent patients for free treatment and another 10 per cent are reserved to provide treatment at subsidised rates for economically weaker sections To avail of this scheme one only needs to provide a ration card or a tahsildarrsquos certificate as proof Twentytwo of such patients have been admitted since August TMH on the other hand provides free treatment to 6037 to 7037 of its patients and one third of them are treated at very subsidised ratesKhan was unaware of the rates or the scheme at this hospital but he said it was because his uncle was still in consultation with the doctor when midday spoke with him at the hospital Out of the total patients who have visited the hospital so far 2763 men and 1791 women have been from the city Meanwhile like Khan most of them 6878 men and 2142 women were outstation patients ldquoAbout 4537 of them have been from Maharashtra and then there are many from Uttar Pradesh and even North Eastern states But we have had very few patients from South Indiardquo Naidu saidCancer patients incur large expenses on medicines while on chemotherapy which are to be consumed multiple times These can range between R50000 to R1 lakh ldquoSo a medicine with Rs 50000 on MRP would be made available to the patient at around Rs 15000 to Rs 20000rdquo Naidu said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi Head and neck cancer doctor at TMH said ldquoAt TMH we negotiate with the government for the benefit of the patients and make a medicine available to them at 7037 to 8037 less rates than the MRPrdquoThe doctors who sit at the hospital were with TMH in the past ldquoIn terms of the final bill of the patient TMH charges a minimal amount for the cost of pharmacy but in our case it is a little higher On the fixed charges in the schedule it is the same but for the pharmacy the charging is a little different That is because of the large support it receives from the government We function through the funds through philanthropistsrdquo Naidu said13574No of patients admitted since August