CUTTACK: Lalatendu Sarangi, director of the Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute for Cancer, Cuttack, has informed the high court that PET-CT scan facilities are not feasible in Balasore and Berhampur.
PET-CT scan is a vital test required for detecting if a cancer cell has spread to any other body part of a patient other than the initial point. The device is known to be the latest and modern equipment to detect cancer in the whole body. The key component of a PET-CT scan facility is the radio isotope, which has a life span of only seven to eight hours. It would require transportation by air only at commercial airports.
In an affidavit, Sarangi said the installation of the PET-CT scan facility in Balasore is logistically possible as radio isotopes can be brought by road from Kolkata to Balasore within five hours. But there being no cancer unit or super specialty centre in Balasore, such a facility would remain grossly underutilised because of lack of clinicians for referring patients to the facility. Besides, traffic issues may cause delay in the delivery of the isotopes.
“Until the proposal for the establishment of a cancer wing in Balasore is completed, it may not be appropriate to install such a facility there,” Sarangi said in his affidavit filed on Wednesday
As for the installation of the PET-Scan facility in Berhampur is concerned, it may not be logistically possible as there is no airport near the city to facilitate obtaining the short-lived radio isotope from outside into the state, Sarangi said.
The AHPGIC director was asked to submit the feasibility report by the state health and family welfare department after the HC directed the state government to examine the feasibility of setting up the PET-CT scan facilities at two other locations in the state — Balasore and Berhampur.
