49 New Cancer Centres To Be Set Up In The Next 3 Years

NEW DELHI: In a major medical development, the government plans to establish 49 cancer centres in the time period of next three years. These centres will be in addition to the 31 already functioning and upgraded ones since 2014-15, when the scheme was launched by the government.

A detailed project has been laid-down by the Health Ministry, plan which will, later on, be reviewed by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) at a high-level meeting on Monday.

As per the proposal, an estimated cost of around Rs 3,495 will be incurred for the implementation of the project.

The Cancer centres will be set up in a stage-manner under the already existing National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke.

Deadly diseases like cancer are on the rise in the country. However, there is a dangerous lack of facilities, mainly at the local levels.

The project aims to make available treatments and other facilities throughout the country, so that patients do not necessarily have to hush to major cities for getting treatment of such diseases.

A whopping 10 lakh cases of cancer are diagnosed every year in India. But, unfortunately, due to reasons like late diagnosis and lack of availability of competent medical treatment, more than 7 lakh of such patients die every year from the fatal disease.

It also aims to provide aid for high-end equipment and advanced technology for cancer treatment, according to an official.

For example, there are only 600 radiotherapy machines in the country, whereas as-per the WHO recommended estimates, this number is half of the required number of such machines in India.

Also Read: The 5 Best Cancer Hospitals In Delhi-NCR