Cancer institute

After the biggest cancer institute established in the national capital, the second largest in North India will be coming up at Kathua district for which the construction work has been expedited. With world class facilities and laced with technology, the cancer institute was planned in Kathua keeping in view the population of Jammu and Kashmir, neighboring Himachal Pradesh and Punjab states and it will be a boon for the patients fighting the chronic disease. The department of health and medical education according to sources has nodded the pre-feasibility report of the GMC Kathua to set up the cancer institute. Union Ministry of Atomic Energy under the guidance of Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also Member Parliament Kathua-Udhampur Constituency, will be supervising the project. The facility will benefit J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab regions besides Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. At present, the facility to treat cancer is available in the SKIMS Soura, Srinagar and the facility of Radiation is also available in GMC Jammu but the demand of separate institute exclusively to treat cancer patients has been being pitched from various quarters since long. Union MoS Dr Jitendra Singh had announced establishing a Cancer Institute in Kathua district following which the work was also expedited on ground. To identify and procure land nead GMC Kathua was already in progress for the past some time but on the suggestions of the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the institute will now be set up within the premises of GMC Kathua. As per experts, in every one lakh population in the country, 100 patients are battling against cancer like chronic disease but only half of the cases are being reported in the respective institutes of various states across India. There are reports that every year 3000 to 4000 patients are suffering from cancer in Jammu and Kashmir but only 1200 to 1500 are being registered in the present healthcare facilities after screening. The cancer patients are being provided facilities and other basic needs as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, they said and added, “in GMC Kathua as well, all basic facilities are being provided to the cancer patients by the Oncology department that started in March 2019. By the end of 2019, 250 patients were registered in Kathua GMC, in 2020, 313 and in 2021 till date, 300 patients suffering from cancer have been registered.