For the past several days, the WhatsApp profile picture of many doctors and consultants in Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) Thiruvananthapuram reads: “Save RCC”.
The message, which has purportedly gone viral on social media, is a genuine cry for help and a silent protest at the manner in which Regional Cancer Centre, the oldest cancer care institute in Kerala’s public sector and one that has championed high-end, affordable cancer care for four decades, is being allowed to sink into oblivion, doctors at the RCC said.
“Until a few years ago, we were at the top of the game. But today, discontent and frustration are brewing within the RCC because of the administration’s total disregard for many of our genuine and long-standing concerns. Even doctors who had long been part of the institution are quitting, because they see a bleak future for themselves and the organisation,” a senior doctor at the RCC told The Hindu. Interestingly, none who left were even asked why they were leaving, they were just let go, he said
Doctors point out that the restiveness within the RCC did not begin overnight. Over the past six years, several grievances raised by doctors have remained pending before the administration, with no solution in sight.
Increase in patients
Patient numbers have swelled in recent years, but the problems of overcrowding at the RCC have been worsened by infrastructural deficiencies and acute shortage of human resources at multiple levels, seriously eroding the quality of patient-care delivery.
Close to 2.75 lakh patients were seen by the RCC in 2018-19. The number of surgeries performed by the centre in the past 10 years has gone up by 42%, yet the number of doctors, operation theatres and other facilities have remained the same.
For instance, the RCC is grappling with a boom in thyroid cancer. The number of new cases touched 1,123 last year. Yet there is just one nuclear medicine consultant, resulting in significant delays in investigations and reporting.
The RCC still does not have a radioiodine treatment facility. Since 2016, the RCC refers patients requiring radioiodine treatment to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital or other private cancer centres.
Long waiting period
“The shortage of human resources is so acute and the patient numbers so high that the minimum waiting period for initiating surgery is sadly 70-90 days. This delay can affect the patient’s prognosis and hence we are forced to initiate chemotherapy first to keep the tumour in check, till we can get a date for surgery. Our theatres, radiation machines and diagnostic equipment are working to capacity and patients often have to go to other centres to complete their investigations on time. Patients have to get lifesaving medicines and even suture materials from outside. The levels of patient satisfaction is abysmal,” senior doctors at the RCC said.
Paediatric surgeon
They said that repeated requests to appoint at least a consultant paediatric surgeon has fallen on deaf ears. Children undergoing cancer treatment at the RCC have to be sent for surgery to SAT hospital or other hospitals and then brought back for treatment.
“There was a time when patient comfort and the right environment for care were the priority in the RCC. The hospital used to stand out for its cleanliness and the comforts it provided. In oncology, doctor-patient interaction is so important. But today the RCC has become a place that adds woes to their miseries,” they said.
A top RCC management official refused to comment on the issues raised by doctors.
