Concerned at the rising number of cancer cases in the country, the Union Health Ministry has chalked out a Rs 5,000-crore plan to set up a network of super-specialty institutes within the next five years to treat the deadly disease. However, shortage of oncologist in the country may prove a stumbling block to the programme.
Under its existing National Programme of Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) launched two years ago, cancer screening has failed to take off till date due to shortage of experts.
By the time the new cancer institutes and centres come up in the country there may be sufficient number of oncologist passing out from medical colleges, a senior Health Ministry official said the Ministry had recently made changes in the Medical Council of India Act to increase special and super-specialty seats in the colleges.
According to various reports, there are only 2,000 oncologist in the country as against the requirement of nearly 6,000. Nearly 150 medical oncologist graduate from various institutes annually.
The official said that the Rs 5,000-crore programme envisages setting up a national cancer institute at Jhajjar in Haryana, cancer institutes in 20 high-cancer witnessing States (Rs 120 crore each) and fifty tertiary care centres (Rs 45 crore each) across the States.
The proposal has been forwarded to the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) for its nod. “In fact, plans are already afoot to lay the foundation stone of the Rs 1000 crore-National Cancer Institute at Jhajjar in Haryana by this year-end itself,” sources said.
Recently, the Government also approved setting up of a Rs 300 crore national cancer hospital in Sangrur under the PGIMER, Chandigarh in Punjab, which is witnessing a spurt in cancer cases.