Docyard | Make cancer treatment affordable

Cancer treatment is extremely expensive and therefore, majority of the population can’t afford it, leading to high rates of morbidity and mortality. Those who can afford it, want state-of- the- art comprehensive cancer care hospitals, which have world-class diagnostic and therapeutic equipments; high standards of care; highly qualified, skilled and trained specialists and super-specialist; excellent nursing and a very high ratio of staff per bed. To maintain highest standards of care and best treatment, cancer hospitals have enormous capital as well as recurring costs.

REASONS FOR HIGH CAPITAl

• land and building: Buildings are highly complex structures and must be built as per guidelines of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to prevent radiation leakage from diagnostic (X-Ray, CT, PET CT, nuclear scanner) and therapeutic equipment (linear Accelerators Brachytherapy equipment etc).  Cost of building one room to house linear Accelerator is about Rs 190 lakhs. To maintain these equipments, central air conditioning must be provided 24x7, leading to very high electricity bill.  
• Equipment: Most of the diagnostic and therapeutic equipments that are imported need to be upgraded every five years because of advancements in technology. In addition to high cost of equipment, cost of spare parts and maintenance contracts run into crores. Hospitals must also pay high taxes on equipments.
• Manpower: Significant amount of hospital expenses are on manpower, specialists and professional fees. Highly qualified skilled and trained Cancer specialists, super-specialist, physicists, technologist, nurses and other support staff are required in a high ratio of staff per patient to ensure best treatment outcomes. Due to limited availability of such trained staff, they have to be paid at a premium, thereby increasing the cost for the hospital.
• Training costs: Due to high attrition rates and poor availability of skilled and experienced staff, hospitals must appoint full-time resources to train the staff and ensure that they can deliver the expected levels of service. Cost of training doctors, nurses, technicians and other support staff is very high due to constant poaching of skilled and trained staff by hospitals.
• Accreditations: The cost of maintaining JCI, NABH and NABl accreditation is extremely high due to extremely high standards laid down by them.
• Drugs and disposables: The cost for drugs, disposable and consumables for cancer treatment is quite high and the burden of this falls on the patient and his family, making it difficult for them to afford the treatment.

SUPPORT TO MAKE IT AFFORDABlE

• land: land could be allotted at subsidised rates. House tax, Water and electricity charges could be lower than regular commercial rates. 
• Exemption from taxes: GST on building materials, consultancy charges (of architects, lawyers and other professionals) lifts, medical gas pipeline system, oxygen, electrical panels, DG sets, lifts, firefighting equipment, sewage treatment plants, air conditioning plant, furniture, IT etc could be exempted for health- care sector.
• Importing equipments: To save foreign exchange, transportation and insurance charges, high quality equipment could be made in India.  At present, 80 per cent of equipment and devices and a high percentage of drugs and disposable are being imported at enormous costs.
• Manpower requirement: Increase availability of trained, skilled and employable doctors, nurses, physicists, technicians, engineers, electricians, plumbers and other staff for providing quality services by starting additional medical, nursing and other colleges for skill development.
• Cancer awareness: Consider allocating additional funds in the budget for cancer prevention and early detection. Cancer treatment costs are much lower for patients if detected at an early stage.

Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital continually strives to provide quality healthcare at an affordable cost.  We have always supported the Government’s mandate which stipulates that hospitals should provide free treatment to 10 per cent of the patients and at CGHS rates to beneficiaries of all Government schemes. 

(The writer is President, Dharamshila Cancer Foundation And Research Centre)