Page 27 - Annual Report
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Key Achievements



                                                                   Operationalising 3 Day Care Chemotherapy     Introduction of a Mobile Medical Unit (MMU) by
                                                                 Centres in Assam in Dibrugarh, Barpeta and   the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Cancer Care &
                                                                 Diphu. These centres provided 2,724 OPD     Advanced Research (SVICCAR) in October 2020,
                                                                 services and 513 chemotherapy sessions.     with a mammography machine. Specially designed
                                                                   Launching a new Radiation Therapy unit at the   to meet the needs of communities residing in
                                                                 Assam Medical College Hospital (AMCH),      remote areas of Chittoor district, the MMU offers
                                                                 Dibrugarh, in February 2021, which has      free screenings for NCDs like hypertension,
                                                                 conducted 527 radiotherapy sessions. The    diabetes, and oral, breast and cervical cancers. Over
                                                                 installations of a Linear Accelerator (LINAC) True   1,623 screenings were undertaken during the year.
                                                                 Beam for radiotherapy and a CT Simulator at the     Recruitment of key personnel for upcoming
                                                                 upcoming Barpeta Cancer Care Centre in Assam,   hospitals in Tirupati, Tezpur and Barpeta, including
                                                                 have also been completed.                   Medical Superintendents, Nursing Heads,
                                                                   Operationalisation of 4 Swasth Kiosks in   Procurement and Finance personnel, Biomedical
                                                                 Chandrapur (Maharashtra), Ranchi (Jharkhand),   Engineers, Radiotherapy Technicians and Medical
                                                                 Dibrugarh (Assam) and Chittoor (Andhra      Physicists.
                                                                 Pradesh) to provide free screening for        Signing of MoUs with prestigious institutes like
                                                                 Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) including   the Tata Memorial Centre (Mumbai), Tata Medical
                                                                 oral, breast and cervical cancers. With the launch   Centre (Kolkata), National Cancer Institute (Nagpur),
                                                                 of these, a total of 9 Swasth Kiosks are now   and Dr B. Borooah Cancer Institute (Guwahati) to
                                                                 operational across 6 locations in Assam     conduct training and fellowship programmes for
                                                                 (Guwahati, Barpeta, Tezpur, Dibrugarh, Diphu,   the upskilling of doctors, General Duty Medical
                                                                 Silchar), and one each in Chandrapur        Officers and nurses in specialised cancer care,
                                                                 (Maharashtra), Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Tirupati   including palliative care. A total of 63 doctors and
                                                                 (Andhra Pradesh). A total of 19,125 screenings   nurses have been enrolled for such fellowships
                        Linear Accelerator at
                        Barpeta Cancer Centre, Assam             have been conducted.                        and trainings.




                      Future Plans                               Challenges Faced


                         Operationalisation of 5 Comprehensive Cancer     Due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and
                       Care Centres (Tirupati, Ranchi, Chandrapur,   the resultant acute shortage of manpower, there
                       Dibrugarh, Barpeta) and 6 Day Care         were disruptions in the manufacturing and supply
                       Chemotherapy and Radiation Centres (Darrang,   of long-lead construction materials, which
                       Kokrajhar, Tezpur, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Yenepoya).  severely impacted construction work across all
                         Building on the existing community outreach   sites, causing delays.
                       programmes and using a robust outreach       Field activities in community outreach
                       communication strategy, an increased number of   programmes were impacted across all locations
                       awareness and screening sessions will be rolled out   (Chittoor, Cuttack, Chandrapur, Ranchi, Barpeta,
                       in 10 districts of Assam, besides Chandrapur   Cachar, Darrang, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kamrup, Karbi
                       (Maharashtra), Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh), Cuttack   Anglong, Nagaon, Kokrajhar and Lakhimpur).
                       (Odisha) and Ranchi (Jharkhand).           Consequently, onsite awareness and screening
                                                                  camps could not be conducted.  However, the
                                                                  team undertook virtual sessions to keep the
                                                                  programmes going.
                                                                                                             A meditation session in progress at the Palliative
                                                                                                             Care Unit, Assam





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