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An incomplete healing
Rohit P.S. SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 00:02 IST
UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 29, 2018 22:50 IST
Prohibitive costs
Farhan’s plight is shared by many cancer patients who cannot avail of appropriate
timely reconstruction surgeries in private health care due to the cost and in turn
have to look to public institutions. However, the absence of dedicated plastic surgery
departments or limited staff where they do exist, results in an inordinate delay at
RRCs.
“We have one dedicated specialist now but the wait [for] to avail complex
reconstruction surgery due to a large patient load at the hospital can get long. The
demand for plastic surgeons specialising in onco-reconstruction is only set to rise
given the burden of head and neck cancers on the country’s healthcare,” says Dr.
Arvind Krishnamurthy, Professor and Head of Surgical Oncology at Cancer Institute,
Adayar, Chennai. Head and neck cancers constitute over a third of all cancers in
India.
Cancers of breast, skin and soft tissue, and those of the lower limbs also require
reconstruction. Resection without reconstruction could severely alter a patient’s
appearance besides robbing them of function or, as in Farhan’s case, leaving him
partially disabled.
“For a year we had a plastic surgeon but now we do not have a specialist. Such
specialists shift to work in the private sector after gaining some experience due to
higher pay and a smaller patient load,” says Dr. Rajashekar Halakud, who heads the
Head and Neck wing in Surgical Oncology at the hospital. The hospital can now only
cater to half the total patient pool requiring reconstruction.
The M.N.J Institute of Oncology (MNJIO) in Hyderabad, one of the country’s 27 RCCs
and one of the two to have a reconstructive surgery department, annually performs
nearly 150 reconstruction surgeries, many delayed. Often, reconstruction is
recommended immediately after resection. Delay in the availability of specialists
can also delay tumour resection.
A footnote
Dr. Krishnamurthy adds that private institutions see only a fraction of patient
numbers that regional centres see. However, medical tourism and patients who can
pay make up for the lack of big numbers.
rohit.ps@thehindu.co.in
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