Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal visits Imaging Guided Radiothrapy Treatment unit at TMC Mumbai on Tuesday.
Mumbai, June 11, 2013: In a bid to provide the best Healthcare and diagnostic facilities to the Cancer patients across the state, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today sought all possible assistance and co-operation from the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) for imparting training in Oncology to the Doctors and Paramedics to update their skills on one hand and to strengthen the Human Resource Potential in Medical and Research on the other.
During an interactive session with the Doctors of the TMC here today, the Chief Minister emphasised on the need to initiate a six months oncology training program for the Doctors and Para Medics of the Government Medical Colleges & Hospitals and the state’s Health Department under the auspices of TMC. He apprised the team of TMC Doctors that the services of Doctors and paramedics after duly trained by them especially in the field of Oncology would be optimally utilised in the upcoming state-of-the-art Cancer treatment centres at Patiala, Amritsar, Faridkot, Bhatinda, Mohali and Sangrur.
The Chief Minister assured that the state would provide the requisite manpower available in terms of the Doctors, Nurses and Technicians to run this program efficiently in Punjab but asked TMC to take care of their training with a view to deliver a quality service, so that the mission of the State Government to provide best cancer treatment especially to the poor patients of the state could be fulfilled in true spirit.
In order to motivate the nurses and other technical staff to undergo this special training, a team of the TMC would soon visit the state to explore and plan for the future. He reiterated that the state government would ensure that after getting this specialised training, the staff must be duly assigned the job in the oncology wings of the state hospitals.
The Chief Minister also informed that the state government has sanctioned new posts of the specialists (Doctors) and the process of recruitment by the Health department was in pipeline. Badal asked the TMC experts to chalk out a plan to provide specific training to the Doctors also, for the upcoming ultra-modern Radiotherapy Hospitals in the state. He also assured the TMC experts that the Punjab government would provide boarding and lodging facilities to them in Mohali, Sangrur and other places where they wish to organise state’s oncology program.
Underlining the need for imparting cost effective Health care facilities to the people, the Chief Minister said that in order to provide uniform Health services to the people, the concept of Human Resource Development should be given paramount importance besides progressing it at the local level. Badal also asked the TMC to adopt the Bathinda hospital, which was well equipped with the ultra-modern infrastructure adding he also impressed upon them to develop similar Radio therapy institute at Patiala too.
Meanwhile the TMC Director Dr. RA Badwe assured the Chief Minister that he would soon depute a high level team to visit Bathinda and Patiala for chalking out the program as per his wishes. He also apprised the Chief Minister that the TMC would soon open a state-of-the-art Radiotherapy Hospital at a cost of Rs. 22 crore in Sangrur, which would be equipped with the ultra-modern machines. TMC had already started the process for setting up this hospital but the requisite permission from the Union government was still awaited, added Badwe.
It may be recalled here that the state government had already allotted a chunk of land for this purpose. The institute would commence the services in the field of Radiology besides latest techniques of Chemotherapy within next six months while the entire institute would be made operational within next two years.
On occasion the Chief Minister also visited the wards and various wings of the TMC where he was briefed about the latest techniques and machines being used for the treatment of the cancer. He visited the units of Radiation Oncology Treatment and Image Guided Radiotherapy system also and evinced keen interest in the online registration of the patients and online record keeping system of the centre. He also visited the dispensary, where the patients could avail medicines at much lower cost than available in the market on the basis of newly introduced online prescription by the TMC.
On the occasion, the TMC doctors through power point presentations informed the Chief Minister about various activities and effective treatment delivery system for the patients inflicted with different types of cancer.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by Advisor on Health and Medical Education and Research Dr. KK Talwar, Principal Secretary Health and Medical Education Vini Mahajan, Special Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Gaggandip Singh Brar besides the TMC team of Doctors and medical specialists including Dr. RA Badwe, Dr Ambumani, Dr AK Decrouz, Dr K Sharma, Dr Ramesh Ashopa and Dr Bhawna.