Cancer, a disease caused by uncontrolled cell division that spreads to other parts of the body, has been a major health concern across the world and Andhra Pradesh is no exception. The increasing incidence of cancer cases and deaths every year made it a serious threat to public health and a major burden to the healthcare system.
Cancer is caused due to various factors such as lifestyle changes, food habits, intake of tobacco products and environmental pollution among others. As per the estimates of the Health Department, 53,000 to 70,000 cancer cases are detected every year in the State and about 34,000 cancer deaths occurred in 2020.
Under the State’s Dr. Y.S.R. Aarogyasri Scheme nearly 40,000 cases were treated in the fiscal year 2021-2022.
Affected pockets
As per the data, one-third of the breast cancer cases were reported in East Godavari, Guntur and West Godavari districts and one-third of the cervical cancer cases in East Godavari, Anantapur and Visakhapatnam districts. Similarly, one-third of the oral cancer cases were reported in Chittoor, Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts. More than 30% of the gastrointestinal cancers were reported in East Godavari, Kurnool and Guntur districts. Nearly 20% of the blood cancer cases reported were from Guntur district.
Currently, thousands of cancer patients are forced to travel hundreds of kilometres frequently to get treatment in districts and States far away from their hometowns due to the lack of treatment facilities in the vicinity.
As a result, the State government has been spending crores of rupees in other States, particularly in Hyderabad of Telangana towards cancer patients under the Aarogyasri scheme in addition to hundreds of crores spent within the state. Also, a majority of the budget of the Aarogyasri Scheme and Chief Minister’s Relief Fund was spent on cancer care, according to an analysis of the Aarogyasri spending. A majority of these funds spent goes to the private hospitals where most of the cancer patients are treated.
To divert the funds for improving cancer care facilities within the state instead of spending in other states and in the private sector, the Health department has embarked on a long journey of providing ‘Comprehensive Cancer Care (CCC)‘ where a patient could avail all the cancer treatment facilities in or around his mandal. A road map has been prepared for the implementation of the CCC strategy in various phases.
Explaining the CCC strategy, Special Secretary (Health) G.S. Naveen Kumar says awareness among people, screening, treatment, palliative care and research are five areas that will be focused on.
In general, a majority of cancer cases are detected at an advanced stage. This emphasises that screening plays a key role in addressing the issue at large but to screen a large number of people there should be awareness and acceptance from people.
“Every day over one lakh people visit government hospitals. Patients can be motivated to get screened for identification of risk and early detections of breast, oral and cervical cancers. On the other hand, breast cancer screening can be taken to the people through screening buses. Through such approaches, more people can be screened,” he explains.
Mr. Naveen Kumar said that the enhancement of infrastructure and human resources for cancer care is another major part of CCC. Installation of radiation equipment in seven teaching hospitals, construction of bunkers in teaching hospitals, and setting up of surgical and medical oncology units in upcoming teaching hospitals are among the plans in place in the first two phases of CCC implementation.
Road map
The government has roped in renowned radiation oncologist Dr. Nori Dattatreyudu as the Honourable Advisor to Govt. of A.P. on cancer care.
The road map was prepared in consultation with several experts in cancer care, including Dr. M.R. Rajagopal, founder of Pallium India and known as the father of palliative care, RCC Trivandrum director Dr. Rekha Nair and Dr. T. Subramanyeswara Rao of Basavatarakam Cancer Hospital and others.
To start with, the State has declared cancer a notifiable disease and all the hospitals and healthcare institutions in the State are mandated to report cancer cases they come across to the government. The Health Department has recently announced that palliative care units with 10 beds will be set up at the teaching hospitals in the State.
Minister for Health Vidadala Rajini has recently announced that plans have been made to establish a cancer care centre for every 50 kilometre radius in the State in the next eight years and that the State government has spent over Rs. 1,000 crore for cancer care in the last three years through Aarogyasri.
