Mumbai: As Assam reels in the aftermath of the devastating floods, help continues to pour into the ravaged state from across the country. Oncologists from Mumbai are rallying together to support the patients of Cachar Cancer Hospital (CCH) in Silchar, which is one of the worst-affected regions. The hospital is being forced to extend free cancer treatment on makeshift boats as the facility has been damaged by the flood.
The efforts to help CCH started with the director of Mumbai’s Tata Memorial sending an SOS via a tweet on June 26 on the challenges faced by the hospital and its staff in treating cancer patients.
“Their immediate requirement of food, water, diesel, and life jacket has been taken care of for now. But as the flood water recedes, we must ensure the cancer patient gets access to the treatment and reaches the hospital. We are working with the CCH on the same. They will require resources- staff, transport, medicines- to go to the community, to the patient’s doorstep to make sure they get treatment on time,” said Dr C Pramesh, director, Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital-Mumbai, whose SOS tweet for financial help for CCH was retweeted more than 700 times.
He said supporting CCH financially is the best and most effective way to help. “We work closely with organisations in that area who can send medicine supplies etc. to the hospital. The team presently needs financial support so that they can recruit more healthcare staff on a temporary basis and reach out to patients at their homes, repair and rebuild the damaged healthcare infrastructure, etc, and get new ambulances,” said Dr Pramesh, adding, “Doctors’ fraternity in Mumbai has reached out and made contributions.”
CCH, which is part of the National Cancer Grid, a network of major cancer centres in India, sees more than 25,000 follow-up patients and 5,000 patients yearly.
Dr Sachin Almel, medical oncologist, PD Hinduja Hospital, Mahim, one of the many city oncologists trying to help CCH with funds said, “A request for help was put in the medical oncologists’ forum, a WhatsApp group. We have been donating on an individual basis. Most of the facilities that were recently established at CCH were washed away because of the flooding. They have to literally start from scratch. We are doing whatever we can as a doctor community and individual.”
Dr Padma Kannan, a radiologist practising in Kandivali, who has been helping Cachar Hospital as a volunteer and part of their think tank said, “We have been mobilising resources to help out with patient treatment and funding.”
Darshana R, in-charge of resource mobilisation at CCH said the biggest help from Mumbai came from the publicity of the present condition of the hospital.
“Doctors from Mumbai’s Tata Hospital helped us reach a larger audience. People knew about the flooding in Assam but didn’t know about our hospital’s existence and the challenges we are facing. This is the 11th day that the flood water has not receded and the second time within a month that we are facing flooding. This time, the flooding is severe and has become a real challenge,” said Darshana.
She said the 140-bed hospital has three wings, out of which two are presently functional. “Our third building, which was recently constructed with the help of the Tatas, housed the nuclear medicine department. It was heavily waterlogged and had the maximum damage to the infrastructure. Because of the heavy water logging at the entrance of the hospital, getting patients inside the hospital has become a challenge admitting them,” said Darshana.
During the peak of the flood, the hospital managed to conduct 50-55 radiotherapy and 8-10 chemotherapy sessions per day. “We administered chemotherapy subcutaneously (needle going into the space between the skin and muscle) outside the hospital, and conducted OPDs in the parking lot. Prior to the flooding, 90-95 patients and 22 patients underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy respectively every day. We are now managing 70 per day radiotherapies and 16 chemotherapies per day. We also managed 35 OPDs per day in the peak of the flooding,” said Darshana.
The director of CCH said while they have managed to mobilise funds for food and water for their staff and patients, repair, reconstruction, and rehabilitation will be the biggest challenges after the water recedes.
“Many of our staff members and patients lost their houses in the flood and were accommodated in the two functional buildings. Several wards have been converted into dormitories to accommodate them. While we have received overwhelming support and can comfortably feed them, LPG and fuel cost has drastically gone up. We need strong nutritional supplements for our patients,” said Dr Ravi Kannan, CCH director.
He said several patients, owing to the floods, could not come to the hospital and several patients had to be sent home with medication. “Once the flood water recedes, we are going to have several teams physically visiting homes and bringing them back to the hospital or giving them home-based care. It will have its own expenses. Cancer treatment cannot be halted. Whether on palliative care or on chemotherapy treatment, we have to ensure our patients get a regular supply of medicines,” said Dr Kannan.