In good news for cancer patients, soon they will be able to seek treatment or palliative care at the civic body's subsidised rates. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to construct a 17-storey multi-specialty hospital near Kamathipura.
According to Mid-Day, the 17-storey multi-specialty will have three dedicated floors for cancer palliative care, which will accommodate 54 patients. The new hospital will come up behind the existing Eye Hospital over an area measuring 2,220 sq m. The hospital will be constructed by the BMC and an NGO will then be appointed through the tendering process to provide the equipment to run the hospital. Apart from healthcare for cancer patients, there will be a dialysis centre, two floors for ophthalmology department and a dispensary.
Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer of BMC told the leading daily, "The hospital will be run under a private-public partnership and it is the first civic hospital which will offer palliative care to cancer patients." The hospital building will have terrace healing gardens on each floor which will consist of shrubs and trees with an irrigation system. This project is in final stages of approval. While it had received initial approval for the concept, the final plans were submitted earlier this month.
Congress MLA Amin Patel, who initiated the project, told the Mid-Day, "This hospital will be one of its kind. There will be an outpatient department where well-known oncologists will undertake consulting. We will also start a chemotherapy centre soon."
