Bhubaneswar: As a big step towards developing world-class advanced cancer treatment facilities in Bhubaneswar, the construction of Bagchi- Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Center in Info-valley-II made substantial progress. The progress of the works set the hope of providing service to people by the Car Festival of 2023. This was known from the field level review of the upcoming hospital by Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra.
The Chief Secretary along with Chairman Odisha Skill Development Authority and Funding patron of the Hospital Dr. Subrato Bagchi visited the campus and reviewed the physical progress with the Engineers and Supervisors working at the field level.
Mahapatra reviewed the matters like availability of construction materials, manpower, machine, possible law and order bottleneck, etc. He asked the ground-level Engineers, who in their turn replied that they faced no problem in these matters. The construction work was in full swing. Foundation work for the OPD building is over. The engineers expressed the hope that the roof casting of the ground floor would be done by the 1st week of May 2022. In the review, the target was set to start treatment of patients by the Car Festival of 2023 after completion of the first phase of construction.
The hospital would be developed into a 750 bedded hospital with the latest equipment and world-class expertise in cancer treatment. Originally 500 bed hospital was planned. Chief Secretary Sri Mahapatra advised building all amenities like waiting space, canteen, toilets, parking places, the shops for essential commodities in the campus, etc. He also advised developing the low-lying area of the campus into a beautiful tank. Available data showed that the hospital was being built with an estimated cost of around Rs.220 cr. The government of Odisha provided 20 acres of land free of cost as the hospital would operate as a philanthropic health care institution.
Later, Mahapatra and Dr. Bagchi visited the premises of the Bagchi-Karunashraya Palliative care center being constructed over another 20 acres of land near the hospital. The Center would have a 150-bedded unit with all palliative care and service facilities. It would also provide consultancy to the patients and their family members. The Center would have one 500 seated auditorium for education and research activities. An amount of Rs. 210 cr would be invested in the development of the center. Target was set to complete its constriction by July of 2023.
Further, the review showed that Centre which operated from its temporary campus at Gandamunda with the rendering of home-based service to the patients from December of last year also started OPD services from March 2022. Mostly the patients needing palliative care were being referred from Acharaya Harihar Cancer Hospital, Cuttack; AIIMS, Bhubaneswar; Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar; and other Government Hospitals.
It may be pertinent here to mention that Bagchi-Karunashraya palliative Care Center was inaugurated in its temporary campus at Gandamunda by Chief Secretary Sri Mahapatra in the month of December 2021. In the meanwhile, the Center registered 128 patients within a 25 Kms radius of its campus. The doctors and nurses of the centers provided home-based service to the patients. Besides, 37 patients were registered for palliative care as referral cases from different hospitals. The Center also coordinated with NGOs and Charity Organizations to proving ration and educational assistance to the poor families of the departed cancer patients. So far, 6 such families were brought under the fold of financial assistance from the NGOs.
Chairman OSDA Dr. Subrata Bagchi, Chief Architect of the Hospital Sundar Raman, Chief Architect of Palliative Care Center Naresh Medappa, Manager Operation Bagch–Karunasraya Gyana Ranjan Mohapatra, Project Manager Lalatendu Choudhury presented the field level situation and necessary data for the review
