GUWAHATI: While addressing the budget session of Assam Assembly Finance Minister Jayanta Balla Baruah announced that the Assam government has approved the procurement and installation of a proton therapy machine worth 550 crore at the State Cancer Institute, Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). Once operational, it will be the first proton therapy unit in India's public healthcare system.
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While the initial announcement was made on 1st January this year, the exact expenditure was announced today during the budget assembly.
The facility will come up at GMCH, which is itself being redeveloped into a new 3,000-bed hospital complex. It forms part of a wider push in the state's cancer-care infrastructure, which already includes 17 planned cancer hospitals, several of which are operational, and is expected to cut down the need for patients to travel outside Assam for treatment.
