Chandigarh, March 24 – The Punjab government is actively considering a proposal to allow hospitals in other states to be enlisted to treat children with cancer from the state under the official health insurance scheme, an official said on Tuesday.
“Recently, we received an enrollment request from a hospital in Gurugram in Haryana, where five patients from Punjab were transferred for treatment at AIIMS,” said Dr Gagandeep Singh Grover, Assistant Director, Non-Communicable Diseases, Department of Health and Family Welfare (DHFW), Punjab.
He was speaking at a state-level consultative workshop here on improving access to treatment for children with cancer, according to a statement.
Participating in the dialogue on strengthening childhood cancer care, Dr Sushil Mahi, Director, NCD, Haryana, expressed the state government’s willingness to explore all options to help children seek cancer treatment seamlessly at centers of excellence near their homes.
Poonam Bagai, Member, ICMR Central Ethics Committee on Human Research, founder of Cankids, and WHO South East Asia Region Representative for Childhood Cancer International, said, “The six states and Union Territories in northwest India need to work together, as patients from these states frequently seek treatment in neighboring states.”
There are examples of patients from Uttar Pradesh using their state’s financial assistance at a treatment hospital in Madhya Pradesh, but in the six northern states/UTs, such interoperability of government insurance schemes is limited.
The state governments need to work together as stakeholders and find solutions for the 4,400 children with cancer in the region – from Ladakh to Himachal to Haryana – so that the government financial assistance scheme of the native state follows the patient if he chooses to seek treatment in a more accessible center in a neighboring state, she said.
“For example, the beneficiary under Punjab Mukhyamantri Rahat Kosh should be free to get treated in Haryana, or children from Ladakh and Himachal should be able to use their government’s financial aid schemes during treatment at PGI, Chandigarh,” said Bagai.
Those who participated in the conclave included Shruti Kakkar, Professor, Department of Paediatrics, Consultant, Haematology and Stem Cell Transplant Unit, CMC, Ludhiana, and Amita Trehan, Professor, Pediatric Haematology Oncology Unit, Advanced Paediatric Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh, the statement said.
The sessions at the conference focused on the Integrated Model for Comprehensive Childhood Cancer Care in NW India; Gap Financing & Universal Health Coverage; Role of Tertiary Centres in Improving Survival Outcomes and From Policy to People: Leveraging Government–NGO Partnerships for Last-Mile Impact.
Bagai highlighted that a task force would soon be set up to coordinate with state governments and other stakeholders so that the children with cancer continue to seamlessly get the best treatment with their respective state government’s funds, irrespective of the physical boundaries in the 6 States/UTs of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, J&K and Ladakh, said the statement.
