Cochin Cancer Research Centre caught in RCC red tape

KOCHI: The speech and swallowing clinic scheduled to start at the Cochin Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) here has failed to take off,  over two months after it was announced,   dampening the hopes of hundreds of patients. The announcement was made on the occasion of the first anniversary of the OP wing on November 1 and the file in this regard is learnt to have reached the office of the health additional chief secretary in the second week of November.  Since the  project cost is over Rs 5 lakh, the government referred the file for expert opinion to Regional Cancer Centre director Dr Paul Sebastian and ever since the file has been caught in the  red tapes of the RCC.

The setting up of the clinic along with an immuno-analyser facility costs approximately Rs 1.07 crore and it is expected to give a major push to the current activities at the OP centre. A team from the CCRC had advised starting this centre after visiting such facilities in Mumbai and Kolkata. The speech and swallowing clinic is for patients having cancers in larynx who have undergone surgery and radiotherapy while immune-analyser is for patients suffering from almost all cancers.  

The clinic assists in the process of swallowing with various techniques after assessing abnormalities and also assesses voice prior to surgery and after surgery and response to speech and helps in rehabilitation. Dr  Paul Sebastian said that Dr K. Ramdas, who heads the head and neck oncology division, has been entrusted with the file in this regard. When contacted, Dr Ramdas said that he was  preoccupied with other tasks and that he would dispose of the file in the first week of January.