The Meghalaya High Court yesterday directed the Meghalaya government and the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health & Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) to list the number of cancer patients in the state and the number of beds and the size of the outpatient block that may be necessary if a stand-alone, super specialty cancer clinic were to be set up in the state.
The division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W. Diengdoh heard a PIL pertaining to lack of a super specialty cancer treatment centre in the state.
During the hearing on Monday, the state accepted that there is no such Centre and submitted that an oncology wing is being added to the Civil Hospital in Shillong, which is near completion.
It is submitted on behalf of the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) that an oncology unit is proposed at such institute and it has also begun in a rudimentary form which is expected to be made into a full-fledged wing upon the completion of civil construction.
The Court while considering the PIL directed that both the state and the NEIGRIHMS should indicate details as to the facilities that would be available immediately or within the next two or three months.
“There is no doubt that such a centre has to come up and the State should also indicate any proposed site and the preliminary plan of action in such regard. List this matter on December 13, 2021,”
-the order reads.
It is pertinent to note that Meghalaya High Court on October 28 had issued notice to the respondents including the Central Government on a PIL contending there is an arbitrary and inordinate delay on the part of the respondents in establishing comprehensive and modern cancer care facilities in Meghalaya even after 49 years of statehood.
The PIL has been filed by one Lurshaphrang Shongwan, resident of Mawlai Kynton Massar, Shillong, East Khasi Hills District, Meghalaya.