Maharashtra teams up with Tata Memorial to train rural doctors on cancer treatment
Aiming to make cancer care accessible to those in rural districts, the Maharashtra State government, with Tata Memorial Hospital(TMH) unveiled on Thursday the ‘affordable cancer care for all’ project. It’s hoped that the project would help reduce the incidence of preventable cancer forms. The project comes at a time when rural patients come all the way to Mumbai-sometimes with their families, for treatment. This practically puts a halt to their livelihood for a good period.
The project is funded by Mylan, the pharmaceutical firm as part of its CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility) programme.
Two phases of training
The first phase of the project includes training and sensitizing doctors, nurses and technicians who work in district hospitals. The first phase is already being implemented in Amravati, Nashik, Pune, Jalgaon, Gadchiroli and Nagpur.
As part of the project, the Aundh Hospital in Pune will be scaled up to a super-specialty hospital. Officials said that work on the same has already begun. Later on, the project is to be extended to 24 district hospitals in Maharashtra.
The project’s second phase will see physicians in district hospitals being given training in screening, diagnosis as well as early detection and administering chemotherapy. Also, existing public health facilities will be scaled up as part of the project. A cancer wing with 100 beds along with a district hospital is also planned.
Sujata Saunik, principal secretary, health who spoke at the launch said that since cancer treatment is expensive, prevention and early detection of the disease is important as it helps reduce the financial burden on patients.
She added that district hospitals shouldn’t just offer counseling but create awareness as well, further saying that it should be ensured that the patients who visit district hospitals get treatment in a timely manner and it will help prevent the patient load on TMH.
This isn’t the first time that the state government has allied with TMH. Earlier, the two together launched the Maharashtra Cancer Warriors- 45 surgical oncologists who underwent training at TMH. Even though they were settled in different parts of the state, they were brought in to provide their services for free by associating with district hospitals. Ever since that program came into being, they have been holding weekly OPDs.
Mylan expressed its interest in scaling up this project, following which the Maharashtra health department and TMH planned the whole project.
Patients seeking treatment at TMH
Both short term and long term training will be provided as part of the project. Dr.K S Sharma, director, academics,TMH said that surgeons and physicians will be trained in the basics of oncology at TMH for four to six weeks. As they are already surgeons and physicians, they will be trained on evidence-based protocol, he added. He said that nurses will also be trained.
Dr. Sharma also said that once properly trained and equipped, public hospitals can then care for the patients at the district level itself. His logic is that the patients won’t have to come to TMH when the best treatment is available nearer to home.
The professionals will be trained on medical oncology, cervical oncology, radiotherapy, palliative care, anaesthesia, palliative care and pathology.
Cancer cases have spiked in the nation in the past few years. According to the Union Health Ministry, the number leaped from 28,54,451 in 2012 to 30,16,628 in 2014. The number of cancer related deaths rose from 4,65,169 to 4,91,598 during the same period. In 2014, nearly 3 lakh cancer cases were reported in Maharashtra alone.
Image credits: The Indian Express