Chandigarh: PGI to soon get dedicated medical oncology department

CHANDIGARH: Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research has approved setting up a medical oncology department which shall dedicatedly work towards cancer treatment. Presently, the same is being done by separate departments including the general surgery, medicine and radiotherapy departments.
“Why should the institute lag behind when AIIMS, Tata medical centre and other prestigious hospitals have a separate department for oncology? Once it is set up, dedicate staff will be provided for the department,” said PGI director Prof Jagat Ram.
As per sources, another reason for approving the department is the rising number of infights within PGI departments. To resolve these, the director had divided these departments into units and given their charge to senior faculty. Medical oncology has been okayed after the cardiology and hepatology departments were divided into units. “But medical oncology will be an independent department. We now have doctors Chandan Das and Gaurav Prakash who are medical oncologists. They will be handling cases pertaining to cancer,” said the director.
Jagat Ram said, “Once the oncology department is established, we will move towards the establishment of surgical oncology.” Nehru hospital’s 250-bedded extension facility has 24 beds for cancer patients. It has been planned that once the OPDs are shifted to the Sarangpur satellite centre, the space vacated shall be utilised for the medical oncology department.
The proposal approved by the PGI director is set to be passed in the standing finance committee and the governing body for a final nod. There has been no oncologist in the institute so far. The radiotheraphy department was also working as the regional cancer centre.
“The radiotherapy department is meant only for cancer registry and cancer-related therapies. Currently, a camcer The patient has to shuttle between medicine, surgery and radiotherapy and other departments, which will be ended once the oncology wing is set up,” said a faculty member.