Interview

'No Patient Goes Outside Orissa for Treatment of Cancer'

Hemlata Hospitals & Research Centre is one of the leading private hospitals of Bhubaneswar. Today, it has established itself as a leading super-speciality hospital in Orissa. Dr Arabinda Kumar Rath, CMD, Hemlata Hospitals & Research Centre speaks about the healthcare scenario in the region and the future initiatives of the Hospital. Excerpts:

What kind of role are the private hospitals playing in reviewing the healthcare scenario in Orissa? What are your views on the prospects of private healthcare industry in the state?

Private healthcare industry in Orissa has undergone a vast metamorphosis over the last two decades. In fact, it was practically unknown except for the existence of a few nursing homes. Many super specialty hospitals have come in the last few years and a few are in the pipeline. It took its time to catch up with the rest of the country due to obvious reasons like poor market conditions, lack of local talent both in entrepreneurial and technical skills. Though a long way to go, the sector is witnessing significant growth and many hospitals with emphasis on super speciality or tertiary care have come up and many are in the pipeline.

In spite of the best efforts by the state Government, it has not been possible to cater to the growing demand of the general public for access to super specialty healthcare. With the explosion of information regarding health and disease in the print and visual media and the growing health consciousness, the public now demands for the latest medical facility at affordable rate. It becomes the responsibility of the entrepreneurs to offer the best and the latest medical care to the inhabitants of the state. Orissa being a non priority area and returns being lower than expected, the investments have gone mainly into real-estate part of the hospitals and the technology gap continues to remain very wide. This limitation can turn into an advantage for the existing players and new comers as well.

Dr Arabinda Kumar Rath

Hemlata Hospitals and Research Centre has accomplished landmark achievements in oncology care. What kind of advanced cancer care services are available at the hospital? Can you also elaborate on having the state's only digital linear accelerator?
We installed the first digital Linear Accelerator with Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) facility of Eastern India and the country's first integrated CT Simulator (CT-SIM) with 3D conformal radiotherapy (3D CRT) for precision radiotherapy which has kept the radiotherapy services of the centre on par with the state of the art technology. At Hemalata Hospital and Research Centre, one can have all facilities for treatment of cancer— onco-surgery, radiotherapy and medical oncology under one roof. Except advanced treatments like bone marrow transplantation, we offer all types of treatment for cancer. We have gone to the interior areas of the state for educating the public about coming to a hospital at the proper time once cancer is diagnosed or suspected.

The Orissa Government has been trying to upgrade and revamp the healthcare delivery system in the state with the active support of the private players. How do you plan to associate with the State Government in these endeavours?

We are very optimistic with the vision of the honourable Health minister of the State. He believes in People Private Partnership. We will be more than happy to co-operate with the state Government in any joint venture. It may be in the form of treatment of state Government employees, BPL card holders in our hospital for cancer. One area of opportunity is to establish links with the Govternment medical colleges in Berhampur and Burla as well as with district hospitals which has got reasonable infrastructure for cancer diagnosis and patient follow up.

Please share with us some of your future plans.

We wish to have a mobile cancer detection van with facilities for FNAC, Mammography, pap smear so that we can go to remote areas and hold cancer detection camps to detect cancer at an early stage. This will help early diagnosis and treatment cost can be lowered. We wish to continue our crusade against tobacco to reduce the incidence of tobacco related cancer. Our goal is to see that no patient goes outside the state for treatment of cancer.

We want to consolidate our position in the Eastern India and look forward to diversify into the whole of the country by bringing in indigenous technology that will integrate the different centres and make best use of the technology and manpower.