History and About Hematology Department, NRS Medical College and Hospital
The Hematology journey was started long back in around 1972. The hematology wing, at N.R.S. Medical College started as a unit under the department of medicine to provide the needs of hematology patients. It commenced with a single room with a very small space for a laboratory. The unit consisted of a faculty (teacher) trained in hematology, who was posted under the department of medicine, along with one technician & a group D staff. The unit in this initial phase was headed by Dr Sandhya Ghose (1972-1974), Dr Manju Dutta Chaudhuri (1974 - 1980) and Dr Madan Mohan Rakshit (1980 -1990) sequentially. A total of ten beds and two-house physicians were allotted from the department of medicine to the unit. The activities included-outpatient clinic-twice in a week, indoor admission and attending referred cases. Basic instruments were scanty - 1-2 monocular microscopes, a water bath, a few Wintrobe and Westergren tubes, a couple of centrifuge machines, and a few bone-marrow aspiration needles. The faculty in-charge of the unit had to work overtime single handedly to provide adequate hematology services as well as teaching students. After about a decade, the unit was provided additional space, better ward facilities and some additional essential items. In spite of repeated efforts nothing substantial was achieved. Beginning of a new era Dr. Malay Kumar Ghosh (June 1990 – February 2013) joined the department in mid-nineties, he was fortunate enough to visit few established hematology setups in the country. He got inspired & realized that to sustain this specialty, it needs to transform the existing set up into a comprehensive hematology department, outside the prevailing domain of medicine. Dr Ghosh was a post-graduate in medicine with exclusive hematology training under Prof. Sandhya Ghosh besides training in general medicine. He was also fortunate enough to be posted as a clinical tutor in the prestigious hematology department of Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine (first time in the history of hematology in West-Bengal). Bolstering of the department by younger generation Dr. Maitreyee Bhattacharya, was headed the department from February 2013 to August 2014, joined as a clinical tutor in late nineties when only a post of clinical tutor was sanctioned by the health department. With her intense involvement, both Dr. Ghosh and Dr. Bhattacharyya embarked upon an intense drive for up progression of the hematology service and academic activities. In the beginning of 2000, it was officially declared an independent department of its own-one dream fulfilled. During this time the hematology department gradually started its journey for induction into the national field. With the initiative of Prof. Ghosh N.R.S. Medical College became the principal center for ICMR sponsored multicenter - JAY VIGYAN MISSION PROJECT for assessing the most recent status of thalassemia burden in the country. During this period, the relentless persuasion for the upgradation continued ceaselessly. New posts were created for professor, associate professor, assistant professor & clinical tutors along with nonacademic Senior Residents. DM course in Clinical Hematology was permitted to start from 2009 and got recognized in 2012 at the time of the final examination of the first batch.
Department had three seats for DM (Clinical Hematology) from 2013. Subsequently the department was headed by Dr Prantar Chakrabarty (August 2014 –June 2019) followed by Dr Tuphan Kanti Dolai from June 2019 to till now. Since 2019 there has been a major development in all aspects of Hematology. Presently the department runs four seats for DM (Clinical Hematology) from 2023.
In February 2009, first Bone Marrow Transplantation was done in the Department of Hematology, NRS Medical College and Hospital. This center did the first autologous as well as allogeneic stem cell transplantation in the Eastern part of India. This is the first center in India that did stem cell transplantation under the state Government Hospital in India. Initially the BMT unit was started with a single room with only air conditioning facilities. Subsequently transformed to three bedded non-HEPA filter facilities in 2015. Four bedded state of the art modular Bone Marrow Transplantation units started functioning in December 2021. The BMT unit of NRSMCH, still now (June 2024) did 122 stem cell transplants successfully. Now the center is well equipped with state of art stem cell transplant facilities and able to perform all types' stem cell transplantation procedures (Autologous, Allogeneic with MSD, MUD, Haploidentical and UCBT) and CAR T cell therapy. To serve the people of West Bengal and adjacent parts of countries, NRS Hematology is the largest Hematology center in the Eastern part of India. Today in June 2024, the Hematology department had 66 (sixteen) indoor beds and 15 (fifteen) Outdoor beds. Pre-Natal-Diagnosis (PND) for thalassemia and sickle cell anemia started in July 2013. As of now (June 2024), the total number of cases was 1578 and 523 affected fetuses were identified. To strengthen the laboratory services, the department got a sanctioned dedicated post of Professor, associate professor, assistant professor and senior resident of Hematopathology. Presently the department has Molecular Laboratory, Coagulation Laboratory, Hemostasis Laboratory, Hemolytic Laboratory and other advanced techniques. Today the hematology department of N.R.S Medical College has made a position in the hematology map of India as well as In the World.
