SHILLONG, Jan 6: The much-awaited Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) at North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) is likely to be operationalised by this summer.
Elucidating on the delay, NEIGRIHMS Director, Prof Nalin Mehta, said, “We were suppose to start off by January-February but there is going to be a little delay due to the pandemic, and now if there are restrictions and if there is another lockdown, it may cause further delay. However, I am hoping that in the next two-three months, hopefully by summer, we will have the RCC operational.”
Mehta informed that barring the pandemic-induced delay, the contractors and supervising agencies are faced with difficulties in getting labourers and are lacking full strength of the labourers.
Informing that the construction work is almost complete, the NEIGRIHMS Director said that procurement of materials required for giving the finishing touches is yet to be made as the vendors have not been able to supply the same.
It may be mentioned that the need for a good cancer hospital in Meghalaya has been felt for a long time.
As per the National Cancer Registry Programme, Cancer Statistics of 2020, East Khasi Hills has the highest relative proportion of cancer cases associated with the use of tobacco for both males and females.
The 66.9 per cent tobacco-related cancer in men and 43.1 per cent in women in the district is the highest in the country.
The total number of cancer cases reported in the past five years from the districts of East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Ri-Bhoi are 7,014. Altogether, 3,281 people – 2,068 of them men – have died during the period due to cancer in the four districts.
The state government maintains that steps are under way to make the cancer wing of Civil Hospital, Shillong, functional. Presently, it is being used as a COVID-19 centre.
