Gauhati Medical College conducts the "first" successful bone marrow transplant.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday that the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital successfully performed its first bone marrow transplant on a 45-year-old male patient. Sarma said during a news conference that the operation was completed a few days ago by a skilled team under the direction of Dr. Jina Bhattacharjee, Head of the Hematology Department at GMCH and that the patient was released earlier on Tuesday.

“This was the first successful bone marrow (or stem cell) transplant that GMCH has ever performed. The patient is a native of the Kamrup district’s Kamalpur neighbourhood. I commend the entire team “Sarma, surrounded by senior medical staff from the government-run hospital, remarked. According to the CM, the patient won’t speak to the media right away because he needs to receive meticulous treatment for the upcoming several months. “A bone marrow transplant costs about Rs 8–10 lakh in a private hospital, but it will only cost Rs 2 lakh at GMCH,” Sarma said. He added that the Center’s health insurance programme for the underprivileged is being expanded by the government to include additional families.

We are thinking about combining the state’s Atal Amrit Abhiyan programme with the federal government’s Ayushman Bharat programme for that aim, Sarma added. The Assam government offers free medical treatment up to Rs. 2 lakh for those from BPL and APL families with an income of less than Rs. 5 lakh per year, in contrast to the Ayushman Bharat scheme, which offers an Rs. 5 lakh cover per family per year.