Cabin No. 5 on the third floor of the CNCI, where the nurses’ office is located. Picture by Amit Datta

In cabin No. 5 on the third floor of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI), there is no patient, only nurses. Four other cabins (Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 9) are run down and have not housed patients for two years.

This is the state of affairs at the lone state-run speciality cancer hospital in West Bengal, where patients are turned away every day because of non-availability of space.

The nurses moved into cabin No. 5 after the original office room was shut down for renovation in 2004. Three years on, the nurses still occupy the room.

Out of the 200 beds in the hospital, more than 50 cannot be used because of infrastructure problems. According to hospital sources, many patients cannot be administered radiotherapy regularly because of a shortage of technical staff and faulty equipment.

Jaydip Biswas, the CNCI director, admitted that the hospital cannot meet the demand for beds. “Hardly anyone is admitted on the first day. Only emergency cases are taken in. Others have to wait for 15 days on an average.”

He, however, claimed that all the 200 beds, including the intensive therapy units (ITUs), were operational.

The authorities also admitted that only seven of the 12 cabins were in use. In two of the cabins where patients are admitted, water seeps through the floor of the washroom above.

According to a study, the number of cancer patients in the state ranges between 150,000 and 200,000. There are 65,000 new cases of cancer in West Bengal every year. Among them, about 25,000 go for treatment. The total number of beds dedicated to cancer patients in government hospitals in the city, including the CNCI, is about 300.

The CNCI building needs urgent attention and repairs have started, said the authorities. Metro found renovation work in progress in the corridors, but not in the wards, cabins or washrooms, which require immediate intervention.

Asked how long the repairs will take, Biswas said: “Difficult to say… it will take time. A team of engineers from Delhi had said that there were some structural problems with the building. An IIT Kharagpur team then inspected it. We will carry out specific repairs after the team submits its report.”

Regarding cabin No. 5, Biswas pleaded helplessness as he had “just assumed responsibilities” as director. “I will change all this. The nurses’ office room should be in a ward so that they can look after the patients. That is where it should always have been.”

He claimed that technical workers were being recruited to deliver medical services better.