The government has started efforts to augment cancer treatment facilities in five government medical colleges in the State so that each institution can be developed as comprehensive cancer care centres, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja has said.
As a first step, the government will start surgical oncology (cancer surgery) divisions in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur, and Kozhikode medical colleges, the Minister said in a statement here on Wednesday.
A total of 105 posts, including faculty and nursing staff, have been created in these institutions in the divisions of surgical oncology, medical oncology and onco-pathology to enable this.
The surgical oncology divisions are being created by re-deploying four doctors each from the general surgery divisions, who were given the option to remain with the parent department or join the new division.
Cancer surgeries in medical colleges were being handled by the general surgery department. By establishing separate surgical oncology divisions, general surgeons get to specialise in cancer surgeries, the Minister said.
