Hemophilia Center to Come up at GMCH

The Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in the city will get one of the three centers of hematology (mainly hemophilia) being set up in the state by Maharashtra medical education and drugs department. The other two centers will be at the Grant Medical College and JJ Hospital in Mumbai and BJ Medical College at Pune. Dr Savita Rangarajan, an expert in bleeding thrombotic disorders from England, will be mentoring the doctors and staff at all the three centers. During her visit to the GMCH , Dr Rangarajan told TOI that she has signed an MoU with the medical education department for dealing with blood disorder like hemophilia, thalassemia, sickle cell disease, etc. A day care facility will be one of the major components of the center. “The center will be a comprehensive facility on hemophilia in which right from diagnosis to treatment will be available under one roof,” said Dr Rangarajan. She said that since GMCH was an academic institution, one of the major purposes of setting up the center here was also to generate database on the disease, conduct clinical trials and research. The same holds true for other two medical colleges, she said.

Nagpur and the region badly needs a hemophilia center as patients of this bleeding disorder have been running from pillar to post for obtaining the anti-hemophilia factor. There are over 500 patients in the city alone. The state government is likely to invest in the centers partially while most of the funds will be coming from corporate social responsibility (CSR). “We are looking for a CSR partner. The project is in very nascent stage and the due course of time,” added Dr Rangarajan. Anuradha Sambre, secretary of Hemophilia Society, Nagpur chapter, has welcomed the idea of setting a comprehensive facility at the GMCH. “The Hemophilia Federation at present supplies the anti-hemophilia factor to patients, which has to be imported. But that is just a temporary solution. Even a small dental bleed too costs over ₹25,000 to the patients. The minimum cost per bleed for a patient is about ₹20,000 and the amount of factor needed depends on the age of the patient and severity of the disease. Sambre said that the city needs a government testing facility for diagnosis of the disease as a single test costs about ₹5000 in private hospitals. – TOI