Cancer hosp named after Ahilyabai Holkar

Mumbai: The city’s first head and neck cancer hospital in Mazgaon has been named the ‘Ahilyabai Holkar Head and Neck Cancer Institute of India, Super-Speciality Hospital’, industries minister Uday Samant told the state council on Friday. He confirmed that the name plate of the hospital had been installed.

The question on the name of the hospital was raised in the state council by BJP leader Ram Shinde. “BMC resolution to name the hospital after Ahilyabai Holkar had been passed in 2018. Has it been implemented?” Shinde had asked, prompting Samant’s announcement in the council.

The hospital — a 93-bedded, multi-storeyed structure — has been built on land leased from the BMC in place of the defunct Ahilyabai Holkar maternity hospital. It has been developed by the Cancare charitable trust set up by senior oral cancer surgeon Dr Sultan Pradhan, who was previously attached to Tata Memorial Hospital and Prince Aly Khan Hospital.

Dr Pradhan is considered one of the foremost specialists in oral cancer and has treated several personalities, including Sharad Pawar. In the last few decades, Dr Pradhan set up training modules for doctors working in BMC-run hospitals and helped set up specialty surgical programmes.

On Friday, the state government informed the council that there was an agreement in 2014, to not change the name of the maternity home. This was to be a precondition in contracts signed for land. Indeed, the application of the new hospital for registration with the BMC carried Ahilyabai Holkar’s name.

The hospital will provide subsidised treatment at centre-run Tata Memorial Hospital rates while offering free and /or subsidised treatment to 20per cent of the population. It will focus on giving treatment for cancers of oral cavity and women’s issues, with doctors from Tata Memorial Hospital scheduled to join its workforce.