Health Care
Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (CCHRC):
The CCHRC is a non-profit organization that provides cancer care to patients from poverty-stricken regions of Assam, Meghalaya, and neighbouring states. One of its kind, the hospital caters to more than 24,000 patients annually, most of whom are treated free of cost or at highly subsidized charges. The SCKC Trust has collaborated with the CCHRC to provide financial assistance to patients belonging to economically downtrodden sections of the society who otherwise would have been deprived of the required medical assistance. In the year 2022-23, the Trust also decided to donate critically required medical equipment.
Established in 1996, CCHRC offers comprehensive cancer care through prevention, treatment, palliation, education, and research programs. The hospital is growing under the selfless and pioneering efforts of Dr. Ravi Kannan who left a promising career in Oncology in Chennai at the request of people of Cachar to set up the Hospital. Dr. Kannan received the Padma Shri in 2022 and the Raymond Magsaysay Award in 2023. The Hospital relies heavily on donations to conduct community outreach initiatives to educate financially vulnerable people on the importance of a healthy lifestyle and cancer prevention. The hospital faces financial challenges due to a lack of consistent funding and increasing expenditures. Despite these challenges, CCHRC remains dedicated to its vision of becoming a state-of-the-art cancer centre that ensures no patient is denied appropriate cancer treatment and no family suffers treatment-induced poverty and grief.
GUWAHATI PAIN AND PALLIATIVE CARE SOCIETY (GPPCS):
It is a not-for-profit NGO with the sole objective of providing palliative care to poor and needy patients who have exhausted all methods and forms of treatment and have reached the terminal stage of their illness/disease. With no hope of recovery these patients essentially need effective pain management under proper medical supervision. With its dedicated team of Doctors and Nurses GPPCS provides palliative care to all patients who need it by visiting their homes whenever required. Through its committed group of volunteers GPPCS offers psychological support through emotional and spiritual counselling to complement the pain management. At the request of GPPCS a 10 bedded Hospice was constructed in 2013 in the campus of the Sacred Heart Sisters for the most serious terminal cases. All medical services including tender nursing care are rendered free of cost under the supervision of GPPCS. This Hospice provides the greatest humanitarian succour to those who would otherwise face a most miserable end.