Dr. Moni Kuriakose’s tenure as the Director of the Cochin Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) is coming to an end and he will not be renewing his contract for purely personal reasons, he said.
A new director is likely to be appointed once the election is over. Dr. Kuriakose was appointed Director in 2018 for a three-year period. “The clinical and administrative staff is there. There will be no change in patient care and the CCRC will continue functioning as efficiently as before,” he said.
“The past three years have not been without challenges. We went through the floods and COVID, and we had to move out. This is my first time working in the government sector and it has been an amazing experience. I was amazed by the collegiality and willingness of the staff to take care of needy patients. We got the District Cancer Control Programme working very well and that was made a State-wide programme,” he said. He was previously the director of surgical oncology at Narayana Health City, Bengaluru, and was the director of the Mazumdar Shaw Centre for Translational Research. He was also the Director of Translational Research at the Rosewell Park Institute in New York and is planning on continuing with that now, while he will also be working with a start-up involved in early detection of cancer.
Meanwhile, the operation theatre for cancer patients is yet to resume functioning at the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Kalamassery. The CCRC had been working from the Ernakulam General Hospital after the MCH was declared a COVID care centre last year, and operations were done at the Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital. With the number of COVID patients at the MCH dipping, the CCRC moved back to the MCH earlier this month, but the operation theatre continues to function at the Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital at Kadavanthra.
“The operation theatre of the cancer centre is the same as the one for COVID patients at the MCH. But hopefully, by April 1, the operation theatre will resume functioning at the MCH for cancer patients,” Dr. Kuriakose said.
