Cancer hospital outpatient opens in Dinajpur, 30-bed expansion planned in three months

The Bangladesh Breast Cancer Awareness Forum has run a month-long programme in Dinajpur to raise awareness about breast cancer and other cancers and to take treatment services to marginalised people. At the same time, the outpatient department of the Khurshid Jahan Haque Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital has opened. There is a plan to expand the hospital to 30 beds within the next three months.

The information was shared on Saturday (31 October) at 3:30 pm at the closing ceremony and scientific session of the month-long awareness and screening programme, held in the conference room of Zia Heart Foundation Hospital in Dinajpur.

It was announced at the event that throughout October, the Bangladesh Breast Cancer Awareness Forum and partner organisations held discussion meetings, street rallies, pink road processions and distributed information-rich leaflets written in Bangla in Dhaka and different regions of the country. On 29 and 30 October, street rallies and awareness leaflets were held and distributed in every upazila of Dinajpur.

The report on the month-long activities was presented by the forum's founder and chief coordinator, Professor Dr Habibullah Talukder Raskin. He said the forum will now run awareness activities in every upazila of one district each month, following the Dinajpur model.

Presenting the progress of the Khurshid Jahan Haque Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital, he said the outpatient department has already opened in the hospital's temporary building, where two medical officers and one oncologist are treating cancer patients every day. From tomorrow, selected patients will begin receiving chemotherapy at the day-care centre. Within the next three months, the hospital is planned to be expanded to 30 beds with indoor facilities.

He also said a Development Project Proposal (DPP) has been submitted to the government for financing the construction of a building, including a radiotherapy bunker, on the hospital's own land and for purchasing necessary equipment.

The chief guest at the event was Social Welfare and Women and Children Affairs Minister Professor Dr AZM Zahid Hossain. Praising the forum's long-running activities, he said the forum is carrying out an important responsibility on behalf of the government, and that the government will extend all-out cooperation to these activities.

He expressed hope that, alongside treatment services, through awareness and screening activities the Khurshid Jahan Haque Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital will gain greater capacity to serve the marginalised people of the northern region.

Special guests included National Parliament Whip Md Akhtaruzzaman Mia and Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services Professor Dr Prabhat Chandra Biswas. The event was chaired by Professor Dr Habibullah Talukder Raskin, and the institute's vice-president AKM Azad also spoke.

After the event, the chief guest unveiled the plaque of the newly built cabin block of Zia Heart Foundation Hospital.