Govt to Open 200 Day Care Cancer Centres in 2025-26, Plans Full District Hospital Coverage in Three Years: MP Arora
Ludhiana, March 24, 2025: Under National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), 770 District NCD Clinics, 233 Cardiac Care Units, 372 District Day Care Centres, and 6,410 NCD clinics at Community Health Centres have been set up.
This has been stated by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda in an answer to a question on `Cancer Care Accessibility in Rural Areas’ asked by MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora in the ongoing session of Rajya Sabha.
Giving this information here today, MP Arora said the Minister further mentioned in his answer that moreover, 19 State Cancer Institutes (SCIs) and 20 Tertiary Cancer Care Centers (TCCCs) have been set up in different parts of the country to provide advanced cancer care. Also, cancer treatment facilities have been approved in all 22 new AIIMS with diagnostic, medical and surgical facilities. Moreover, National Cancer Institute (NCI) at Jhajjar, Haryana with 1,460 patient care beds and the second campus of Chittranjan National Cancer Institute in Kolkata with 460 beds provides advanced diagnostic and treatment facilities.
Further, there are 372 District Day Care Centres providing Chemotherapy across the country. Under the National Programme for Palliative Care (NPPC) services like Out Patient Department (OPD), In Patient Department (IPD), referral, home based palliative care are being provided at District level.
Under the Department of Atomic Energy, Tata Memorial Centre has two units/ hospitals in rural / semi-urban locations – the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital (HBCH) in Sangrur in Punjab and the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital in Muzzafarpur in Bihar.
In Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), cancer related treatment including breast, oral and cervical cancer is provided under more than 200 packages having more than 500 procedures of Medical Oncology, Surgical Oncology, Radiation Oncology and Palliative Medicine in the national Health Benefit Package (HBP) master. Among these, 37 packages are specifically related to targeted therapies for cancer care, including chemotherapy (CT) for CA Breast, CT for Metastatic Melanoma, CT for Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, CT for Burkitt's Lymphoma, CT for CA Lung, and others.
Under PMJAY more than 68 lakh cancer treatments worth over Rs 13,000 crore have been undertaken under the scheme. As per centrally available data, 75.81% of these treatments were availed by beneficiaries from rural areas.
With regard to targeted therapies for cancer care, more than 4.5 lakh treatments worth over Rs.985 crore have been undertaken for targeted therapies of cancer care. Of these, 76.32% were availed by rural beneficiaries under PM-JAY.
One-time financial assistance upto Rs.15 lakh is provided under the Health Minister's Cancer Patient Fund (HMCPF) for treatment of poor patients living below poverty lines and suffering from cancer. Besides, quality generic medicines including cancer drugs are made available at 50% to 80% cheaper rates than branded medicines through Janaushadhi Stores and through the 217 AMRIT Pharmacies, 289 Oncology drugs are given at a significant discount upto 50% of market rate.
The Minister further mentioned in his answer that Budget announcement of opening of 200 Day Care Cancer Centers (DCCCs) at District Hospitals in 2025-26 and saturation of remaining District Hospitals with DCCCs in the next three years has been made this year.