Madurai cancer care centre cuts down costs

For a salaried clerk in Theni district, cancer treatment and its follow-up might involve numerous harrowing nine-hour trips to Chennai regularly plus additional expenditure on boarding and lodging. But a new oncology day- care centre in Madurai is changing the face of cancer care in southern Tamil Nadu.

In the state that ranks seventh in the number of cancer cases in the country, the available facilities have remained concentrated in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore and Vellore. Filling this gap in healthcare, a first-ofits-kind oncology day care centre in Vadamalayan Hospitals at Madurai, has been serving the needs of cancer patients from the southern part of Tamil Nadu, said Dr Pugalagiri Vadamalayan of Vadamalayan Hospitals. Tying up with GE Healthcare to design and conceptualise the centre, the centre is aiming to change the delivery of cancer care services in the state. 

According to doctors at the hospital, prior to the centre there was one government hospital and three private hospitals, but for advanced facilities like PET/CT, one had to go all the way to Chennai. Many patients spend a huge portion of the cost on boarding and accommodation. Dr Pugalagiri added, “This centre revolutionises the way cancer care is delivered to people of Madurai and south Tamil Nadu districts, bringing world-class treatment closer to them and making their overall cost of treatment affordable. The Oncology Day Care centre model also allows delivery of comprehensive cancer care in an OPD (out-patient department) setting without the need for hospitalisation, as is the practice in the western world.” 

Some of the facilities available are Linear Accelerator for delivering radiation therapy, brachytherapy, a specialised radiation treatment, especially for cervical and prostate cancer and in medical oncology side there is a chemotherapy facility as well. On the diagnostic side, it offers the latest in imaging and screening technology with GE’s Discovery IQ PET/ CT. The technology plays a pivotal role in early diagnosis, staging and post treatment monitoring of cancer.