Affordable Cancer Care project launched in Nagaland; Tata Memorial Centre urged to set up its unit

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Sep. 7 (EMN): Chief Secretary of Nagaland, J Alam, on Wednesday solicited the Tata Memorial Centre to set up a unit in Nagaland, which can be part of the existing hospitals or the Kohima medical college, adding that if there is a possibility, the state government would pursue the same.

He was addressing the launch of a state-level programme on Medical Certification Cause of Death (MCCD) and Affordable Cancer Care project at Hotel Vivor in Kohima organised by Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, department of Health and Family Welfare and department of Economics and Statistics.

He commended the Tata Memorial Centre for making cancer care affordable, and maintained that the Central government is also giving a lot of focus on the Northeast.

Alam said several states have got their own cancer hospitals and exuded hope that Nagaland will come up with a cancer care centre very soon.

Asserting that a lot of work is going on for improvement of public health and healthcare services in Nagaland, he said several companies had committed to implement various projects in the state during the recently concluded corporate social responsibility (CSR) conclave. He added that about 79 projects worth about INR 50 crore had been committed to the state, out of which 50 projects were in the health sector.

He informed that 17 out of the 50 projects were relatively prominent worth about INR 25 crore and that ‘anything that helps in improving the health system in Nagaland is always welcomed and acknowledged’.

Meanwhile, dwelling on the fight against the COVID-19, he said everyone from different professions and sections had contributed towards managing the pandemic, while the state government in its own way had tried to improve health facilities.

The chief secretary opined that the state has performed better in certain parameters while certain parameters were still lagging behind. However, he said there was no let up in its efforts and a lot of improvement had come about for the long run in the health facilities and health centres for the benefit of the people.

Alam expressed hope that the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance will take care of the in-hospital expenses for insured persons and provide universal coverage for all the population of the state.

Further, he also called for efforts to improve the state rank of MCCD at least to the national average while assuring government’s support and assistance.

Chemotherapy, radiotherapy centres to be set up

Earlier, delivering the keynote address, Dr. Ravikant Singh, officer in-charge, Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (HBCH & RC), Muzaffarpur, stressed on the need to keep proper data to set priorities and help policy formulation through the MCCD, and expressed hope for success in its implementation.

Speaking about the Affordable Cancer Care project, Singh said it aims to take cancer care services nearer to the people and that it had identified Kohima and Mokokchung districts for the first phase of targeted intervention. It will train the medical officers and nurses on cancer screening and also set up a few chemotherapy and radiotherapy centres in Nagaland, he said.

In a short speech, Kevileno Angami, Commissioner and Secretary of Economics and Statistics, School Education, SCERT, said data is important for policy formulation and planning, adding that 1468 registrars in Nagaland were involved in the registry at different levels. She also highlighted that about 72,000 birth registrations were made on an average.

However, she pointed out that there is still a very low rate on registration of deaths, stating that unless there is a reason, people don’t come forward to get the death certificate, which can only be done by medical practitioners and not others.

Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, Asangla Imti, in her address, said medical certification or leave or commonly called death certificate is an important tool for obtaining authentic and scientific information regarding cause of mortality.

She said mortality statistics is essential for better planning, management of programmes, formulation of policies and for undertaking control measures in an effective and planned manner for the welfare of the people.

The official asserted that it is useful to know the impact of health services and to evaluate health indicators like infant mortality, maternal mortality etc. adding that any planned activity programme can be successful only if the statistical information is authentic and correct.

Expressing concern over Nagaland standing in 24th position among the states in India as per MCCD report 2020, she said it reflects the indolence or lack of consciousness among the people. She asserted that this will not bring positive impact on the healthcare delivery services to meet the health needs of the target population, as programmes can only be successful if the MCCD is implemented well to frame a robust state health policy.

On the occasion, Dr. V Khamo, Consultant Naga Hospital Kohima, State Nodal Officer BSL Labs, Research and Ethic, who was also the principal investigator of the pilot project on implementation of MCCD using NCDIR e-MOR Software in Naga Hospital Authority, Kohima, gave a presentation on the pilot study.

Training manual for paramedical staff on affordable cancer care was also launched during the programme.