Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 18: To provide quality healthcare service to cancer patients, the state government has decided to upgrade all the government medical colleges to tertiary cancer care centres, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said here Friday.
Addressing the 29th national annual conference of Indian Association Of Surgical Oncology (IASO), Patnaik said “The government is also upgrading facilities at all the district headquarters hospitals for early detection of cancer.”
Besides, the Cuttack-based Acharya Harihar Cancer Institute has been declared as the centre of excellence for cancer management and it would be upgraded to state cancer institute with all facilities to ensure that cancer patients are not required to go outside for treatment, the Chief Minister said.
Stating that his government accorded top priority to provide quality healthcare to the people with special focus on the poor, Patnaik said, “We are constantly improving the infrastructure in different medical colleges and hospitals. Our initiatives in the health sector have resulted in improved health indicators.”
The state government has included 23 anti-cancer drugs in the essential drug list which are available free of cost under ‘Niramaya’ scheme at government hospitals, he said.
Cancer is the second largest killer disease after cardio-vascular disease globally. In India, every year about 8 lakh new cancer patients and 5.5. lakh death cases are reported, Patnaik said, adding, “We must understand the magnitude of the problem and take necessary preventive and corrective measures.”
According to sources, Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC), Cuttack treated 23,020 patients in the OPD and admitted 9159 patients in 2010-11. The number of patients received treatment at the OPD raised to 32,866 in 2014-15 while 28,985 patients were admitted in the same year.
