The fund has been established by the government with seed money of Rs100 crore and the state governments are also expected to contribute to this fund.
Union health and family welfare minister Gulab Nabi Azad today said the centre has established the 'Health minister's cancer patient fund' in his ministry to reduce financial burden of cancer treatment for Below Poverty Line (BPL) patients.
The fund has been established by the government with seed money of Rs100 crore and the state governments are also expected to contribute to this fund, Azad said at the inauguration of Women's Cancer Initiative-Tata Memorial Hospital Mobile Outreach programme.
"Through this fund, the treatment of a BPL cancer patient can be supported upto Rs 1 lakh at any of our 27 Regional cancer centres and 40 Oncology wings Insitutes that have been set up under the National Cancer Control Programme or at any public sector health facility,"he said.
Besides, assistance is also provided to the BPL patients who are suffering from chronic diseases and getting treated in government hospitals through Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi and the diseases include cancer, kidney and liver ailments.
The assistance is sanctioned to the hospitals after assessing patient's condition by a screening committee.
"This assistance can go up to Rs20 lakh in case of very serious and deserving cases," he said.
Azad said that it was surprising that in the last four months, 90% of the who availed the funds were from West Bengal and no other states. "We want BPL patients across the country to take advantage of this fund and doctors should help in creating awareness among them when they come to the hospitals," Azad said.
He said the ministry would welcome contributions from philanthropic organisations and individuals to this fund.
Azad also promised to look into the demands of doctors to increase the syllabus contents on oncology (study on cancers)at the MBBS level which is quite low at present.
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