Rajasthan govt boosts cancer fight with registry & cashless care

New Delhi: Shubhra Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Medical & Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt of Rajasthan, emphasized the state’s commitment to healthcare with a significant focus on early-stage cancer detection and timely cure.

Speaking at the ‘FICCI Roundtable for Rajasthan,’ Singh highlighted that Rajasthan allocates 7.4% of public spending to healthcare. “Under the Mukhyamantri Aayushman Aarogya (MAA) Yojna, there are various packages which offer relief including cashless transactions to the people covered under the scheme,” she added.

The roundtable, held under the aegis of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI, focused on making cancer care affordable and accessible in India. Singh announced that the Rajasthan government is developing a population-based cancer registry, “115 hospitals are already registered in the state for cancer registry. The State Cancer Institute Jaipur is the apex cancer institute in the state, and we also have Territory cancer care centre at Bikaner and Jhalwar,” she noted.

Raj Gore, Co-lead of the FICCI Task Force on Cancer Care and CEO of Healthcare Global Enterprises Limited (HCG), addressed the increasing burden of cancer in India. According to a FICCI report, cancer cases are expected to rise to 250 to 280 per lakh population by 2030, underscoring the urgent need to make cancer care more accessible and affordable.

FICCI formed a multistakeholder Task Force in 2022 to strategize on tackling the cancer burden, releasing a report titled ‘Call for Action: Making Quality Cancer Care More Accessible and Affordable in India’ in collaboration with EY. This report has been submitted to relevant healthcare departments.

Other key stakeholders, including Dr. Shalini Singh, Director of ICMR’s National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Rehabilitation, and Dr. Jatin Thakkar, State NCD officer at WHO, shared their insights and suggestions. Vineet Gupta, Co-Lead of the FICCI Task Force on Cancer Care, and Dr. Ravi Gaur, Founder of DRG Path Labs, also contributed to the discussion.

The Jaipur Roundtable was part of a series of regional discussions organized by FICCI, supported by HCG Cancer Hospitals and Varian, with EY as the Knowledge Partner. The event in Jaipur saw over 70 stakeholders, including government officials, senior clinicians, and representatives from hospitals, MedTech, and pharma companies, coming together to address the future of cancer care in India.