CoE on cancer care to come up at Vizag, Vijayawada, Tirupati

Visakhapatnam/ Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Government in collaboration with Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai will set up Centres of Excellence for cancer care and research at Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.

The government has already prepared a blueprint for a comprehensive cancer care project. An MoU to this effect was signed recently by Principal Secretary, Health MT Krishna Babu with the Tata Memorial Centre here.

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during a review meeting on medical and health sectors held at his camp office Monday, told the officials to expedite the projects as the incidents of cancer are increasing very fast. The cancer care project will focus on prevention, treatment and palliative care. In all, 44 health centres including 11 existing and 16 upcoming medical colleges, four district headquarters hospitals and 13 area hospitals will be chosen to render advanced cancer treatment and research.

With rising cancer cases in view, where about 34,000 people succumbed in 2020 across the State, the Chief Minister ordered the officials to focus on providing cancer detection at the village level right from PHCs,

At the review meeting, the Chief Minister directed the officials to provide a post-delivery financial assistance of Rs 5,000 to women under Arogya Asara for both normal and cesarean deliveries. He asserted that maternal care has to be focused irrespective of whether it is a normal delivery or a cesarean, and told to provide the same amount under Arogya Asara.

Reddy said that special attention should be paid to encouraging normal childbirth and said that physicians are responsible for raising awareness among pregnant women.

Referring to YSR Aarogyasri, he instructed the authorities to bring more medical treatments under Aarogyasri after discussing with medical experts, physicians. The officials stated that so far 2,446 procedures have been made available and spending almost Rs 270 crore each month for the schemes. Besides these, for running 104 and 108 services, Rs 25 crore is being spent every month and similarly Rs.35 crore is being paid for Arogya Aasara. The officials informed that the government is spending about Rs 4,000 crore towards YSR Aarogyasri and its allied activities.