In a major initiative, the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) in collaboration with the Maharashtra government, has extended the pilot project, ‘Access to Affordable Cancer Care for One and All’ to cover the entire state, an official said here on Wednesday.
The pilot initiative was launched in June 2016 in Pune, Nashik, Jalgaon, Amravati, Gadchiroli and Nagpur to make cancer care more accessible and affordable at the district levels and bring down the incidence of its preventable form, besides strengthening cancer care services in district government institutions.
After the success in the 6 districts, from Aug. 1 it has been extended to the remaining 30 districts in the state, said TMC Director Dr. Rajendra Badve and Joint Director of Public Health Department Dr. Vijay Baviskar.
The officials explained that the three most common cancers in India are the breast, uterine cervix and lip/oral cavity, accounting for 34 percent or one-third of all the cancers in the country.
Besides constituting a public health concern, the patient and their families also reel under a financial catastrophe plus psychological stress for the diagnosis and treatment.
The initiative tackled the larger goal that patients from the rest of Maharashtra do not have to rush to Mumbai for treatment leaving behind their families and livelihoods on hold for their cancer treatment.
The project was supported by Mylan Laboratories Ltd (A Viatris Co) as part of its CSR activity, and it approached TMC to join as a project partner.
Through this, they created models of rural and semi-urban cancer healthcare delivery virtually at the doorstep via training and capacity building of cancer cure personnel, standardisation of treatment and reduction in costs for the patients.
In 2019, the project was scaled up at the national level with one district each in Punjab, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Nagaland, as a pilot and after success, will be rolled out on a bigger scale.
Two years later in 2021, the project was expanded to cover 10 more districts – Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Ahmednagar, Satara, Jalna, Akola, Wardha and Chandrapur.
At a function, the authorities also launched the 'Maharashtra Oral Cancer Warriors', a voluntary group of oncologists, alumni of Tata Memorial Hospital, practicing in their respective districts.
The MCWs have taken a novel initiative to provide their free services at district civil hospitals and medical and surgical oncology.