Those who scoff at the services of government-funded hospitals will have to concede that the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) is a spectacular exception. The four-building complex in central Mumbai which receives most of its funds from the Department of Atomic Energy is the premier cancer institute in the country. A third of India’s cancer patients—rich or poor—make their way here for treatment. The hospital registers over 34,000 patients every year and as many as 1,200 visit its out-patient departments daily. An overwhelming 65 per cent of its patients receive heavily subsidised care.
The hospital was set up in 1941 by the House of Tatas, honouring the philanthropic commitment made by Sir Dorabji Tata after his wife Lady Meherbai succumbed to leukemia in 1932. By 1952, the government set up the Cancer Research Institute in the same complex. By 1962, as the hospital grew, it was handed over to the government. It is now administered by a governing council with representatives both from the Atomic Energy Commission and the Dorabji Tata Trust.
The 484-bed hospital is the largest facility for cancer treatment in India and the main referral centre for the disease. "We attend to all aspects of cancer under one roof: prevention, diagnosis, treatment and also post-operative rehabilitation. This allows us to hold joint clinics, where different departments can discuss how a case should be treated," says Ashok Mohan, advisor to the Tata Memorial Centre, which includes the TMH and the Cancer Research Institute.
The hospital was the first in India to conduct a bone marrow transplant in 1983 and continues to break new ground in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Its greatest service is in reaching sophisticated treatments to the poor. The majority of patients anyway pay nominal fees or have them waived. In the spotlessly clean "general ward" where needy patients are housed, domestic worker Jaiwanti Vaiti from Thane says she has not been charged for surgery or for the hospital bed. "I earn just about Rs 25 a day. I would not have been able to afford the treatment. Just meeting the cost of medicines is difficult," she says. Charges for most major surgeries for private patients are between Rs 20,000 and Rs 35,000 while a bone marrow transplant costs between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 8 lakh.
The TMH’s biggest problem is its patient load. With just 197 doctors and 313 nurses to attend to the flood of patients from all over India, crucial services are often delayed. Outside the OPD, you meet many frustrated patients who have been waiting to meet doctors for more than six hours. "We had to wait for three days just for my father’s test results," says Manoj Samant Rai from Bhubaneshwar. But some would say that that is a small price you have to pay for coming to the country’s best cancer facility.