The Andhra Pradesh government is creating cancer treatment facilities aimed at ensuring patients do not leave the state for healing from the disease by 2030, Health Minister Vidadala Rajini has said.
Regional cancer hospitals in Visakhapatnam and Kurnool will be ready by September 2024, the minister said, even as preparations are being made to establish two more such hospitals in other places.
The Andhra Pradesh government is creating cancer treatment facilities aimed at ensuring patients do not leave the state for healing from the disease by 2030, Health Minister Vidadala Rajini has said.
As cancer treatment facilities in the state are poor, the AP government is creating comprehensive facilities to fight the disease at a time when the world is witnessing rising cases, Rajini said.
"Ours is the only government which is providing cancer care at any cost. Under Aarogyasri, 400 cancer procedures are being freely extended, which involves a cost of Rs 400 crore per annum," the minister said at a review meeting on Monday.
She said arrangements are being made in every teaching hospital in the state to offer cancer treatment, including expenditure of Rs 118 crore. In Visakhapatnam alone, Rs 46 crore was spent on equipment while a regional cancer hospital is being set up in Kurnool at Rs 120 crore.
Regional cancer hospitals in Visakhapatnam and Kurnool will be ready by September 2024, the minister said, even as preparations are being made to establish two more such hospitals in other places. Rajini said efforts are being made to set up a hospital at every 50 km interval for comprehensive cancer care in the state.
She directed officials to ensure that all government hospitals offering cancer care to go into the villages to conduct cancer tests, including setting up PET CT scanning facilities at government hospitals.
The minister claimed AP is the "only state" offering cancer care by aligning to the National Cancer Grid. These services are being offered at Visakhapatnam through Homi Bhabha Cancer Institute. Already, the state government is training its medical personnel at the Homi Bhabha Cancer Institute.
Meanwhile, AP government's cancer care advisor Nori Dattatreyudu noted that the southern state is only the third one in the country to accord notifiable disease status to cancer. The veteran oncologist said the state government is developing Tirupati Balaji Institute of Oncology as a regional hub.