Bhubaneswar, April 7: The heath and family welfare department is planning to set up a dedicated cancer care hospital in Jharsuguda.

Once set up, this would be the second such facility in the state after Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre in Cuttack.

"Considering the number of cancer patients in the state, we are planning to set up the hospital after consultation with stakeholders," said additional secretary of the department G.G. Debta.

Debta also said that they had asked the officials concerned to furnish the report on the number of cancer patients in the state. "We have got a request from the Jharsuguda district administration and asked our non-communicable disease cell to give us the statistics," said the additional secretary.

The state government has already decided to set up a 100-bed superspecialty cardiac care hospital in Jharsuguda. A memorandum of understanding has already been signed with Care Hospitals to execute the project. This project will be executed in public-private-partnership mode.

Sources said the government was considering executing the cancer care hospital project in a similar manner.

"The plan to set up the cancer care hospital is in a very initial stage. Once it is approved, we will look after the ways to execute the project," said another official of the health and family welfare department.

Besides the proposed cancer care hospital project, the government also operates non-communicable-disease cells to treat cancer at around 15 district headquarters hospitals of the state. At these centres, the patients get chemotherapy and costly cancer drugs free of cost.

A report of the Indian Council of Medical Research revealed that 16,885 persons died from cancer in 2014 while the total incidence of cancer cases was 38,375 in Odisha. The number was 37,478 in 2013. Researches have shown that breast and oral cancers were the most common ones in the state.

"It would be great if the state government sets up a dedicated cancer care hospital in the state. There are a number of private hospitals treating cancer, but it is not possible for everyone to afford the high cost of treatment," said social worker Aruni Rath.