Aurangabad: Bringing good news to the Super Specialty medical aspirants in Maharashtra, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has given its nod to the Government Cancer Hospital (GCH) Aurangabad for commencing a super-speciality "DM Paediatric Oncology" course in four seats.
With the nod from the Apex medical body, now GCH Aurangabad has become the first Government Hospital in Maharashtra for earning approval for the concerned course.
The students who will get enrolled in this Super Specialty course will have a chance of special training in which they will get a six months posting at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, informed Dr Kailash Sharma, the Dean of Projects in Tata Memorial Center.
Following the NMC nod for the DM Paediatric Oncology course, the Officer on Special Duty of Cancer Hospital Dr Arvind Gaikwad expressed gratitude to Commissioner Virendra Singh, Director Medical Education and Research Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, Dr Kailash Sharma, Dean Dr Varsha Rote Kaginalkar for assisting them in the project.
"Our staff worked hard to pass the National Medical Commission inspection. The team under Dr Bhattacharya and Dr Shiraz Baig conducted a mock inspection and guided us. We are expanding our Cancer Hospital and this speciality will get a special ward," he told the Lokmat Times.
DM Paediatric Oncology is a super specialty course that offers specialised treatment to cancer patients who belong to the 0-14 years age group.
Also Read: NMC nod to 14 MD seats at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital
As per the latest news report by Lokmat Times, Dr Kailash Sharma of Tata Memorial Center had dreamt about this course around 10 years back while he was working as a member of the Board of Governors of the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI). Back then, he had introduced this Super specialty course at Tata Cancer Institute (TCI) in India in three seats during the academic year 2012-2013.
Speaking about this, Dr Sharma informed the daily that previously only a 'Medical Oncology super specialty course' was there and only MD Medicine and MD Paediatrics candidates were able to join this course.
He told the daily, "I felt that cancers in children should be handled by superspecialists who have basic training in Paediatrics, as children with cancer have special problems. After this, three other colleges in the country started the course, GCH of Aurangabad is the fifth. There were only 18 postgraduate seats in the country. With four new seats, their number will go up to 22. The super-speciality course in the GCH is very satisfying, after helping to set up other courses like Radiotherapy, Surgical Oncology, Neonatology and even Geriatrics."
He further informed that for the Paediatric Oncology ward, he made Rs 1 crore available through CSR and with this money the interior of the ward got developed by making it child-friendly, pleasant and AC glass cabin was added to it so that the children can play in there.
Speaking about the course, he told the daily, "Also, the students admitted for this course will get six months posting at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, as a part of special training. By this, we will try to strengthen the cancer services and education at GCH which is very close to my heart and mind."
Meanwhile, while commenting on the NMC nod for the DM Paediatric Oncology course, Dr Aditi Lingayat, a professor of Paediatrics Oncology pointed out how childhood cancers have doubled in the country in the last 10 years.
Mentioning that half of the childhood cancer cases are blood related- leukaemia and lymphomas while the rest of the cases are solid tumours like kidney, eye, bone, liver, germ cells etc., she told the daily, "Cancers in children are diagnosed late-and the mortality is high. It is 40-70 per cent in untreated cases or those who come late. So, there was a need for a specialised course."
"Services like diagnosis, treatment like chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy are provided at the hospital. NGOs like 'Samata Foundation' and 'Cankid' help the patients too. This course will start for the first time in a Government Medical College in the State though Dr Kailash Sharma who started it first in Tata Memorial Hospital in 2012. They have 6 postgraduate seats now. Trained manpower is needed for carrying out specialised treatment. We will get the staff through the four postgraduates who will join every year. Residents are the backbone of the round-the-clock care of patients. The research will improve and we can start bone marrow transplants in the future," she further informed.
Also Read: NMC nod to 4 more MD Psychiatry seats in GMC Srinagar