Indore (Madhya Pradesh): There is no end to the ordeal of cancer patients requiring brachytherapy for treatment as the proposal to install the machine at Government Cancer Hospital is crawling at snail’s pace. Moreover, the hospital administration fears that the funds allocated by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) under corporate social responsibility (CSR) will also lapse in the current fiscal due to lethargic attitude of officials of the Medical Education Department.
According to hospital doctors, the brachytherapy machine is out-of-order for the last two years as it has completed its shelf life. ‘The machine is no longer in use and we are waiting for the new machine from a long time. Multiple proposals were sent to the medical education department for the same but to no avail,’ the senior oncologist said on condition of anonymity. He added that BPCL had signed a MoU with MGM Medical College for providing grant of Rs 2 crore for getting the machine in August, last year.
‘As per the conditions of MoU, BPCL will provide Rs 2 crore for the machine while the state government will bear Rs 2.5 crore for the same. A time of eight months was decided to get the machine installed but the proposal couldn’t become the ground reality,’ the doctors said. Meanwhile, oncologist Dr OP Gurjar said that they have sent multiple proposals to get the machine installed. ‘We believe that the machine would be installed soon,’ he added.
Only facility in the state with Brachytherapy
MGM Medical College’s Cancer Hospital was the only facility in state which had brachytherapy. The old machine was installed in 2004 but is now out-of-order. According to the rules of AERB, the machine should be in well- maintained condition to be operational and it is also mandatory for the service provider company to take responsibility of its maintenance.
What is Brachytherapy
Brachytherapy is a type of radiation therapy in which a device (catheter/implant) is placed inside the patient. This device delivers radioactive substances to nearby cancer cells and destroys them. In this method, doses of radiation are delivered to precise areas of the body to kill cancer cells or stop them from growing. The therapy is often used to treat cancers of head and neck, breast, cervix, prostate, eye and soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities.
