Outside Tata hospital which diagnoses 6 lakh cancer patients every year, are patients without shelter
If you take a walk along the bylanes of Parel, near Tata, Wadia or K.E.M. hospitals, you will be shocked to see the miserable condition of poor people suffering from cancer who are literally living on the footpaths, covering themselves with plastic sheets, for more than a month because there is no place for them to stay in the hospital and they cannot afford to stay on rental basis or go to a dharamshala. There are more than 25 people staying on the footpath, who are being treated in Tata hospital for cancer. Many cancer patients cannot afford the treatment cost as well.
Talking to ADC, some of the poor patients related their misery. “We are living on the footpath, we have no place to stay, neither in the hospital nor anywhere else. We are taking treatment since more than two months. There are various problems for me as I am a woman. Where can I go for bathing and toilet needs? But I manage somehow. I am suffering from breast cancer, I don’t have enough money to stay in a hotel or guest house,” lamented Anjali Choudhary from Silinguri, West Bengal, wiping the tears which were flowing down her cheeks.
Another patient, Bijendra Singh Rana said he is suffering from cancer in the neck and has been living on the footpath since April and added that his suffering gets worse during heavy rains. Says he, “Since I am patient I can't walk, what should I do? If I get wet in the rain there are chances of getting infection because my immune system is low. Several times I have been kept waiting in Tata hospital, and my pain increases when the treatment is postponed.”
Speaking on this issue S.H. Jafri, senior PRO at Tata hospital said, “Tata hospital has understood the magnitude of poor patients, so we have already taken three buildings of B.P.T. and St.Jude buildings to provide free accommodation to children and females. Work is in progress in all these buildings.
The MMRDA and MP Rahul Shewale are also helping us. A NGO, Sraddha is also making some arrangements for elderly patients. We are also enhancing the accommodation at Bandra Borges Memorial for 100-200 people, we are also coming up with a 13-storey building. The patients who are living on the footpaths are encouraged by donors who come there, distribute food to them which actually harms the patients as it leads to complications. Instead, the donors should provide them shelter.”
Every year six lakh people are diagnosed with cancer, but unfortunately there are not enough cancer specialists for this huge numbers. Most of the people from rural areas die of cancer without ny diagnosis or treatment. Many cancer patients come to Mumbai to get treated and for them the only hope hope of survival is the Tata hospital.