No expert to deal with lung, kidney disorders & cancer in Bhopal

Bhopal: Whatever data is available on the impact of methyl isocyanate (MIC) on the health of people exposed to the deadly gas in Bhopal and their progeny shows that survivors of the gas disaster have been more prone to disorders related to lungs and kidney.

Prevalence of cancer among gas victims has also been found to be on the higher side. This was the reason why the Group of Ministers on Bhopal, led by then finance minister P Chidambaram in 2010, announced a special package of Rs 10 lakh to each of the seriously ill kidney and cancer patients.

But even a cursory look at the medical facilities available at gas relief hospitals, including Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC), would show that there is no expert for treatment of renal disorder, cancer and trouble in respiratory system in any of those hospitals.

Purnendu Shukla, member of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee — constituted by the apex court to keep a watch on medical facilities being provided to gas victims in the gas relief hospitals including BMHRC — admitted that there is no specialist to take care of patients of renal failure, lung disorders or cancer in any of the gas relief hospitals of the state government or BMHRC, a super-speciality hospital constructed at the behest of the Supreme Court to “provide best possible treatment to the gas victims”.

Shukla said that Dr Banjare, who holds charge of the nephrology department of Kamla Nehru Super Speciality Hospital of the gas relief department, is trained to take care of patients of renal failure, but he is not a specialist in nephrology. BMHRC, which had employed Dr Dinesh Upadhyay, on contract basis as a specialist in nephrology department, too, has no specialist in the department after he quit the job. He further said that Kamla Nehru Hospital at least has 10 dialysis machines, but BMHRC is facing acute shortage of dialysis machines as well. “BMHRC has only three functional dialysis machines, one of which they keep reserved for HIV+ patients. They have stopped registering new patients for dialysis due to shortage,” Shukla said.

The Rasool Ahmed Siddiqui Pulmonary Centre in Jinsi, started in 1994 with great fanfare for treatment of lung disorders among gas victims, is almost defunct. “No, it is not closed, but can only treat patients of cough and cold,” said Shukla, when asked if the pulmonary centre is closed as it has no specialists to treat patients of lung infection.

The committee — in one of its previous reports — had informed the high court that 42 state-of-the-art machines purchased at the time of the hospital’s inauguration have become defunct without being used. “The gas relief department itself admitted that 32 such machines were never used and can’t be used now as they have become outdated,” he said.

No gas relief hospital has an oncologist either for treatment of gas victims suffering from cancer. After Dr Vinay Kumar quit BMHRC and joined AIIMS, Bhopal, oncology department at BMHRC is also shut. The patients are referred to three local private hospitals and usually have to bear expenses of the treatment on their own, which is later reimbursed.