After setting the trend for new-age multi-speciality hospitals in the city, Ruby General Hospital, on the EM Bypass, is all set to venture into super-specialised neuro and cancer care, two areas of marked deficiency in Calcutta’s healthcare delivery system.

Work on a 200-bed super-speciality hospital on a 2.3-acre plot adjacent to the existing facility, to house “state-of-the-art neurology and oncology wings”, will begin in May. While the outpatients departments are slated to open by 2005-end, all the seven floors of the 140,000-sq-ft centre are expected to become functional by the first quarter of 2006.

“There is an area of commonality between the two super-specialities, particularly in diagnostics. Hence, we have decided to club the two together. The new hospital will provide maximum value addition to cancer care in the city, harnessing related elements together,” declares Ruby managing director Sajal Dutta.

The entire treatment planning system at the oncology wing will be computerised, with monitors at the patients’ bedside generating automated MRI reports. It will have a linear accelerator, the “most advanced form of radiation therapy”, brachytherapy for extremely localised radiation and a CT-guided simulator to locate and mark tumour areas.

“To inspire confidence among patients, we need to have quality personnel manning quality equipment under one roof, and the Ruby venture could well answer that need,” observes Subhankar Deb. The onco-surgeon, among a panel of experts providing inputs for the proposed Bypass hospital, laments that cancer treatment in the city is far too fragmented and individualistic.

“If the Ruby management keeps its commitment, the exodus to Mumbai and the South will surely slow down,” he adds.

“We are trying to stitch together the best practices in cancer care and tailor those to local needs,” says Dutta. The marking factor, the management stresses, will be to create and nurture an academic environment to facilitate research and add to the fine-tuning of medical protocols.

Papers will be published in national and international journals and at a later stage, the effort will be towards skilled post-graduate training.

The neurology section will have an integrated trauma centre with critical care and full-fledged rehabilitation backup, besides a dedicated reconstruction surgery department. Special emphasis will be given to paediatric neurology, while all forms of neurosurgery will be offered.

The hospital will also house a dedicated nursing school to train nurses in domain knowledge to specialise in neurology and oncology care.