Chief Minister to launch District Day Care Chemotherapy project in Mysuru today
Starting Friday, cancer patients in need of follow-up chemotherapy in 16 districts can get it in their nearby district hospitals. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will symbolically launch the District Day Care Chemotherapy project in Mysuru on Friday.
Giving details of the project, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao told presspersons on Thursday that the day care chemotherapy centres that will be launched simultaneously in 16 districts will function on a hub and spoke model.
So far, cancer patients had to visit either the State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in Bengaluru and Kalaburagi, or private hospitals for chemotherapy. Depending on the number of chemotherapy sessions prescribed, patients had to either get admitted or travel back and forth for follow-up therapy.
Now, with the day care centres, patients can get follow-up chemotherapy sessions for solid tumours at the nearest district hospital.
Karnataka reports approximately 70,000 new cancer cases (incidence of cancer) annually according to ICMR-NCRP 2023 report. The leading cancer sites include breast (18%), cervical (14%), oral (12%), lung (8%), and colorectal (6%). The incidence of oral cancer in Karnataka is higher than the national average at 12 cases per one lakh population. While the incidence of breast cancer is 35 cases per one lakh female population, incidence of cervical cancer is 15 cases per one lakh women population.
'However, 60% of patients travel more than 100 km for chemotherapy owing to centralised services in major cities, such as Bengaluru, Hubballi, and Mysuru. Due to these logistical issues and travel cost, over 30% of patients drop out of treatment and this has created a need for district day care chemotherapy centres (DCCC),' the Minister said.
These centres will not only reduce the urban-rural disparity in cancer care but also minimise travel/hospitalisation costs for stable patients while preventing patients dropping out of treatment, he said.
Hub and spoke model
The centres to be run on a 'hub and spoke' model, will be established through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between tertiary care centres and district day care chemotherapy centres.
The 16 hub hospitals that have been empanelled are responsible for clinical services. These centres will also manage treatment-related complications, provide specialised diagnostics and staging, conduct PET-CT scan, do molecular profiling, and advanced biopsies apart from providing pathology and radiology support for spoke centres, the Minister said.
The spoke centres where DCCCs will function provide chemotherapy administration, adjuvant/palliative chemo, pre-chemo workup, basic lab tests and ECG monitoring.
Jan Aushadi Kendras closure only on government hospital premises
Clarifying that no sale and purchase of drugs/medicines will be permitted on government hospital premises, Mr. Dinesh Gundu Rao said all Jan Aushadi Kendras running on hospital premises will be closed down.
'There are around 1,400 such kendras in the State and of these, around 180 are functioning on hospital premises. Our policy is to provide free medicine to patients. With such centres running on hospital premises, there are chances of misuse and doctors can write prescriptions for patients to buy from there. We want to stop this,' he reiterated.
'No need to panic about COVID at this stage'
Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, who asserted that there is no need to panic about COVID-19 at this stage, said the State is closely monitoring the situation.
'We have been getting sporadic COVID-19 cases and as of now there are 32 active cases in the State. But this is not an outbreak of the new strain,' he said.
Pointing out that there are no guidelines or instructions from the Centre as of now, the Minister said the State's Technical Advisory Committee is monitoring the situation. 'As of now there is no need for us to step up testing or initiate any measures,' he added.
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