THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Health minister K.K. Shailaja said State Cancer Care Grid (SCCG), a network of cancer care facilities in public and private sectors, will come into being soon. In a reply to calling attention motion by C.K. Nanu on the necessity to control the increasing occurrence of cancer and kidney diseases, the minister said the official order on setting up of SCCG will be issued soon. She said facilities for early detection of cancer will be extended to family health centres.
The minister said the steps were being taken in the wake of increasing number of cancer cases in the state. About 50,000 cancer cases are detected every year in the state. The SCCG will play a key role in providing cancer prevention and control programme. The new cancer care grid is aimed at providing an opportunity to the people of the state to access affordable cancer detection and treatment facilities in close proximity of their place of dwelling.
The SCCG is part of the government’s “cancer care strategy” to counter increasing incidence of various types of cancer in the state. The idea is to put in place an effective strategy that would cover prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer. At the moment the government is implementing Sukrutham free cancer treatment scheme for patients in government hospitals. The scheme facilitates free cancer treatment for all patients.
Initially the scheme was implemented in Regional Cancer Centre Trivandrum, Malabar Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Kozhikode medical colleges and Ernakulam general hospital. Experts say the proposed cancer care strategy of the government would succeed only if there is close coordination between the hospitals and regular flow of medicines from the KMSCL. Moreover, the government will have to ensure that more funds are allocated to the Sukrutham project to keep it up and running. At the moment the RCC is running the project using its own funds.
