PMJAY – First Year with 90,000 Cancer claims; Tamil Nadu tops the list

The Union Health Ministry released its data on PMJAY – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. The scheme aimed at helping economically vulnerable persons. It aimed to cover more than 10 crore families.

Key Findings

• According to the report, every year there are 11.57 lakh new cancer patients in India and 7.84 lakh cancer deaths.
• In the first year, PLJAY has funded 90,000 cancer patients
• There are around 22.5 lakh Indians living with cancer at a given point of time. Tamil Nadu tops the list with 40,056 cases followed by Kerala (22,000), Madhya Pradesh (19,455), Chattisgarh (15,997) and Gujarat (14,380)
• The report says that there is a steep rise in cancer care for patients and treatment facilities.
• On the whole, the National Health Authority, the nodal agency for implementation of PMJAY has sanctioned Rs 321 crores so far for cancer care.

Steps under the PMJAY

• Under PMJAY, HWC (Health and Wellness Centers) were started for 3 types of cancer namely oral, breast and cervical.
• The scheme was launched in September 2018 with cancer care as its top priority.
• The National Cancer Grid and National Health Authority collaborated to battle cancer under the scheme. The main objective of the collaboration included developing uniform standards of patient care of prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2019