Oncology Unit for Batticaloa Hospital

Nadira Gunatilleke

Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva has ordered the relevant officials to set up an Oncology Unit at the Batticaloa Hospital and send the required number of doctors and Cobolt Machines as soon as possible, a Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry spokesman said.

He said that Minister De Silva has also ordered to upgrade work on the existing Oncology Units at the Kandy, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Karapitiya, Ampara and Badulla hospitals in order to minimise the number of patients who are transferred/visit the Maharagama Cancer Hospital for treatment.

Since a large number of patients seek treatment from the Maharagama Cancer Hospital, both the hospital and patients have to undergo various hardships. A specialist doctor from the World Health Organisation (WHO) will arrive in Sri Lanka on April 28 in order to provide a basic training to local doctors to operate the Linear Accelerator System built at a cost of Rs. 1,000 million.

This service which is the most advanced form of cancer treatment available in the world at the moment will be available to Sri Lankan public free of charge through the Maharagama Cancer Hospital soon after the local doctors receive the basic training, he added.

At the moment similar treatment is available at private hospitals for over Rs.400000 but such machines are not up to international standards. The Linear Accelerator System available at the Maharagama Cancer Hospital is the best in Sri Lanka and the most modern form of treatment in the world, he pointed out.

Fifteen thousand new cancer patients seek treatment from the Maharagama Cancer Hospital annually and 60 per cent of them are females.

About 100 child cancer patients seek treatment from the hospital annually and 700 cancer patients seek treatment from different clinics of this hospital daily.

At present there are 850 in-house patients at the Maharagama Cancer Hospital.