With Prime Minister set to inaugurate Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital & Research Centre at Mohali in Punjab on August 24, officials said the health facility is significant due to reports of increased cancer prevalence in parts of the state.

They noted that treatment of cancer under 'Ayushman Bharat', a health insurance scheme for the poor, has been a prime focus of the central government to safeguard people from the catastrophic expenditure on cancer treatment.

Health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year is provided for secondary or tertiary care hospitalisation, they noted. A total of 435 procedures, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy packages, have been defined for the treatment of cancer along with surgical oncology, they added.

The central government has built the tertiary care hospital at the cost of over Rs 660 Crore. It is a 300-bed capacity and is equipped with modern facilities to treat all types of cancers using every available treatment modality like surgery, radiotherapy and medical oncology - chemotherapy, immunotherapy and bone marrow transplant, they said.

"This project is significant since there have been numerous reports of increased cancer prevalence in parts of Punjab and people being forced to go to other states for affordable cancer treatment. This issue was so rampant that a train from Bathinda was known as a cancer train," they said.

This hospital will act as a hub of cancer care while a 100-bed cancer hospital, built by the central government and functional since 2018 in Sangrur, will now act as a spoke of this hospital. This hospital will also help patients from neighbouring states, they said.

Highlighting the government's focus on the treatment of cancer and helping its patients, they said oncology treatment has in its various aspects been ensured in the new AIIMS that is being established under the aegis of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). Cancer Care Facilities are also being established in other medical colleges under the scheme.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) under the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers put out a list of 390 anti-cancer non-scheduled medicines with MRP reduction up to 87 per cent in 2019, they added.

The functional Ayushman Bharat Health & Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) have done more than 10.33 crore screenings for oral cancer, more than 3.41 crore screenings for cervical cancer in women and more than 5.06 crore screenings for breast cancer in women as of April 2022. Among the major cancer hospitals recently inaugurated, PM includes seven facilities opened on April 28 in Assam at a function in Dibrugarh.

These cancer Hospitals are built at Dibrugarh, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Darrang, Tezpur, Lakhimpur, and Jorhat. During the function, the prime minister also laid the foundation stone of seven new cancer hospitals at Dhubri, Nalbari, Goalpara, Nagaon, Sivasagar, Tinsukia and Golaghat, officials said.

On January 7 this year, the second campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata was inaugurated by him.