By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Ratan Tata to lay foundation stone of 19 Cancer Hospitals in Assam coming 17 June 2018.The foundation stone of cancer care units in 19 new hospitals will be laid by industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata next month. State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday announced the establishment of cancer care units in 19 new hospitals. All the 19 hospitals will be established under the supervision of Assam Cancer Care Foundation and the Tata Trust in a bid to provide advanced treatment to the cancer patients of the region. Addressing the media here, the Health Minister further informed that the foundation stone of the hospitals will be laid on June 19 next in the presence of Tata, Chairman of the Tata Trust, in Guwahati. The Assam Cancer Care Foundation will be headed by Chief Secretaries of Health and Finance departments including a senior doctor from Tata Trust, Dr Tapan Saikia, who is recognized as one of India’s leading oncologist. Around 13 sites have been identified so far for the construction of the hospitals. The Minister also informed that these hospitals have been conceptualized based on a 3-tier system and will be constructed under the L3 (Level 3), L2 (Level 2), L1 (Level 1) divisions. The L3 hospitals will maintain the ‘Basic’ standards of a hospital and will be located in Barpeta, Diphu, Dhubri, Jorhat, Silchar, Tezpur, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Dibrugarh districts of the state. The L2 hospitals will maintain the ‘Surgery’ standards and will be set up in Goalpara, Haflong, Karimganj, Kokrajhar, Golaghat, Darrang, Nalbari, Sivasagar and Tinsukia districts. And the L1 hospitals will have ‘Sophisticated’ standards and will be established in Guwahati. “L1 or a state-level cancer care institute in Guwahati would have advanced tertiary care facilities; L2 or medical colleges in the state would have facilities for chemotherapy, radiation and surgical oncology and L3 or district hospitals would have day-care, chemotherapy and radiation facilities,” Sarma added. It may be mentioned that last year, Tata pledged to give Rs 1000 crore along with other resources to help the Centre’s move of developing cancer-care centres in five states. The five-states are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.