Bhubaneswar: Odisha government and Tata Trust will jointly spend Rs 1,000 crore for development of cancer care facilities in the state in next five years, a senior official said Monday.
The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting chaired by chief secretary AP Padhi and attended by representatives of the Tata Trust here Monday.
The meeting focused on the implementation of a distributed model in Odisha to make cancer-care accessible, reduce the travel time and waiting period for the patients.
Padhi said the Tata Trust has recommended a three-tier step-down model focusing on prevention and early detection of cancer and making cancer care accessible by reducing the travel time to a maximum 2.5-3 hours, which would result in improved survival rates.
As per the Tata Trust’s plan, the network will comprise three levels. In the first level, the Tata Trust would set up a Greenfield Hospital in Bhubaneswar and develop the infrastructure at Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre in Cuttack.
In the second level, comprehensive diagnostic facilities for the treatment of cancer patients would be set up at several existing medical institutes in the state.
These include Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research at Burla, MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur, government medical colleges in Kalahandi and Koraput and Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
In the third level, daycare and diagnostic facilities would be set up at the district headquarters hospitals (DHH) in Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Baripada, Nabarangpur, Balangir, Bargarh and Angul.
Besides, the Tata Trust has also recommended daycare and diagnostics in the remaining DHHs outside of its proposed network.
The estimated cost towards the infrastructure development in five years would be around Rs 1000 crore, which would be equally shared by the Tata Trust and the state government, Padhi said.
Padhi said the state government will set up Odisha Cancer Care Foundation for better treatment of cancer patients.