Lessons from India’s fight against the pandemic can serve as valuable beacons in our targeted policies for prevention and treatment of cancer, says Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary while addressing National Workshop on “Roadmap for Cancer Treatment”.

"Any initiative related to cancer control and management cannot be implemented in silos but needs to be taken up with whole of government and society as has been our learning from management of the pandemic, since the issue is cross cutting across various government and non-government management spheres," said Bhushan.

Further elaborating, the Union Health Secretary pointed out that the pandemic has taught us that health is not the exclusive responsibility of only the Union Health Ministry but jointly addressed by various Ministries at the centre and through state governments.

Commenting on health, Bhushan said, "Health cannot reside only at the tertiary healthcare centres, but has a huge footprint in the primary and secondary levels too. Tertiary health facilities of Ministries such as Labour, Railways, Steel, ONGC, Atomic Energy etc., can be pooled to make a significantly large and sustainable network of healthcare for an exponential impact of healthcare delivery."

He identified framing, sharing and adherence of evidence based common Standards of Protocols for critical care management as another learning for cancer management.

These can guide the restructuring and refinement of the National Cancer Control Programme of the Union Health Ministry, he commented.  

“We need to adapt and promote health technology and prevention and treatment of cancer such as telemedicine for improved access to care”, he stressed. Various “Hub and Spoke” models implemented in some states such as Assam, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar can be emulated by other states, along with detailed mapping of the facilities with the granular planning of healthcare delivery," added Bhushan.   

Roli Singh, AS & MD (NHM); Vishal Chauhan, Joint Secretary (Policy); Dr. Rajendra Badwe, Director, Tata Memorial Centre were also present at the event along with other senior officials from various states and medical institutes.