CUTTACK: The State government has informed the Orissa High Court that a final decision on setting up PET-CT scan units in Balasore and Berhampur can only be taken after the department of Nuclear Medicine of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar gives its opinion on the matter.
The court had on April 29 directed the State government to examine the feasibility of establishing the facilities at Balasore and Berhampur. The direction was issued while hearing a PIL seeking the court’s intervention for PET-CT scan facility at the Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute for Cancer (AHPGIC) in Cuttack for the relief of patients. Anita Budhia, a cancer patient had filed the PIL before succumbing to the disease.
In an affidavit filed on Wednesday, Special Secretary Health and Family Welfare department Dr Ajit Kumar Mohanty said the Director of AHPGIC Dr Lalatendu Sarangi was asked to submit the feasibility report. After he submitted his report, it was felt necessary to further get it verified by a nuclear medicine specialist.
Accordingly, through a letter on July 5 the department of Nuclear Medicine at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar was requested to verify the feasibility report. “After receipt of response further action shall be taken on the installation of PET-Scan facility in Balasore and Berhampur”, Mohanty said in his affidavit. Taking on record the affidavit along with the affidavit filed by the AHPGIC Director, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Savitri Ratho allowed petitioner counsel Arun Kumar Budhia to file his reply to the affidavits by August 31.
In his affidavit, Sarangi said installation of PET-CT scan facility at Balasore is logistically possible as radioisotopes can be brought by road from Kolkata to Balasore within five hours. But such a facility would remain grossly under-utilised as there is no cancer unit or super specialty centre. Until the proposal for establishment of a cancer wing in Balasore is completed, it may not be appropriate to install such a facility there, Sarangi said.