NEW DELHI: The Union Health Ministry has begun setting up 200 daycare cancer centres in over 750 district hospitals in the country, a top ministry official said on Friday.“We have started carrying out surveys to assess the gaps in these over 750 district hospitals. We plan to upgrade them after we get the detailed report. Then we will start the process of setting up daycare cancer centres,” Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava told this newspaper.In her budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced facilitating setting up of daycare cancer centres in all district hospitals over the next three years. “Our government will facilitate the establishment of Daycare Cancer Centres in all district hospitals over the next three years. Two hundred centres will be set up in 2025-26,” Sitharaman had said.The health secretary said the total estimated expenditure in the next three years in establishing these daycare cancer centres will be Rs 3,200 crore. The aim of setting up daycare cancer centres is to bring essential cancer services closer home, particularly for those in underserved rural areas.The focus is also on providing chemotherapy services and conducting cancer prevention and awareness programme.With the country witnessing rising morbidity due to cancer, which is posing a public health challenge, cancer screening for individuals aged above 30 years is being undertaken at the 1.6 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs in the country.The secretary, who briefed the media on the budget allocation for the health ministry said Rs 3,000 crore was approved for 19 State Cancer Institutes and 20 Tertiary Cancer Care Centres in the last decade.
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