Carelessness or neglect?
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: In what may seem to be yet another classic case of ignorance or downright neglect, a mobile cancer detection unit worth Rs 1 crore has been gathering dust at the Shillong Civil Hospital for the past several months.
The unit was being run by the UK-based Roko Cancer Charitable Trust with the support of the State Health and Family Welfare department.
It learnt that this unit has been lying on the Shillong Civil Hospital premises since April due to a technical problem with the mammography machine.
It may be mentioned that in April last year the unit (bus) with state-of-the-art equipments to test breast, cervical and oral cancer was launched by the State Government following signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Trust to operate the mobile unit on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
Though the bus was originally designed to carry tests for breast cancer, testing of cervical and oral cancer was also carried out in four districts – East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Ri-Bhoi.
When contacted, Sadananda Das, director of operations, Roko Trust, Meghalaya, told reporters recently that some parts of the mammography developed technical snag since July and the engineers had been informed to rectify the problem.
“We hope that the machine would be made operational within a week. The engineers are trying hard to fix the problem,” Das said while adding that the cards in the mammography machine were available only in Germany and hence the delay in fixing the machine.
Das further claimed that the hilly terrain of the State is not suitable for such a big bus which is being used as the mobile cancer detection unit.
“We have already requested for a small bus from the Trust and we hope this will be made available to us,” Das said, adding that the Trust would sanction another small unit for Garo Hills region within six months.
“A big bus had been sanctioned for Garo Hills but it is being used in Punjab now. We would prefer a smaller unit (bus) for the region,” he added.
Meanwhile, commenting on the cancer detection mission, Das said that in the four districts of East and West Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Ri-Bhoi, a total number of 1,233 patients were examined for breast cancer in the past one year out of which 529 cases were further analysed but none of them tested positive. A few cases will be further tested and investigated, Das added.
Out of the 3,279 cases screened for cervical cancer, 2,096 cases were further tested and only two positive cases were detected on the past one year.
Out of the 6,665 cases screened for oral cancer, 106 cases were referred for biopsy of which 16 positive cases were forwarded to the Meghalaya Cancer Society for treatment.
Das also mentioned that a total number of 15 doctors and nurses were presently manning the unit in the State.
It may be mentioned that the Roko Cancer Charitable Trust, besides operating in Meghalaya, has also been running similar units in eight other states of the country including Punjab, Delhi, UP, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa.