Tata Memorial to churn out more Cancer specialists

Cancer is a matter of concern for our country as the numbers are rising each year. Reports suggest over 8 lakh Indians are diagnosed with cancer every year while about 5.5 lakh lose the battle. The country needs around 500 cancer specialists to make sure every patient is well taken care of. To strike a balance between the two, Tata Memorial has taken a strong move of turning out more cancer specialists from March.

For this purpose, every professor has been asked to mentor three PG students instead of two. This increasing number of patients came to light last year, when the hospital authorities took stock of specialists in oncology. According to the report presented to the Ministry of health and Medical council of India (MCI), the country produces merely 43 surgical oncologists annually. There are 43 seats for medical oncologist, where 16 surgical and 10 medical oncologists are from Tata Hospital alone.

The proposal was sent to the Union Ministry and it has received a positive response according to a senior official. The official also said that the government is planning to create a pool of cancer specialists in the next five years. K S Sharma, MCI governing board member and director of academics at Tata Hospital, said that there will be a considerable increase in doctors in three disciplines - radiotherapy, medical oncology and surgical oncology. Read More...

Sharma also said apart from changing the ratio, the MCI will recognize any doctor with an MS or MD degree and a teaching experience of 8 years. He also added that more doctors can mentor more students and will in turn produce more experts.

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