The South India Times Amaravati Sep 14: Giving major thrust to the prevention and treatment of cancer, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has instructed the health department to set up an oncology department in all medical colleges of the state. The Chief Minister held a review meeting with the Health and Family Welfare Department on Tuesday. It was also decided to set up oncology departments in the new medical colleges that are currently being established in the state. “Build and strengthen the government healthcare facilities in the state and people would avail the Aarogyasri services at our hospitals. It is a win-win situation for the state if we set up the oncology departments in all medical colleges for prevention and treatment. It will help us with more PG seats along with the resources to treat the patients at government facilities,” the Chief Minister said.
It is worth mentioning here that the Andhra Pradesh government’s expenditure on cancer treatments has seen a significant increase over the last seven years. The state’s expenditure for cancer treatment has increased four times since 2015. The Health department officials informed the chief minister that 1,40,639 virtual accounts have been created under the Aarogyasri scheme for the people availing of the services in which the state government deposits the treatment amount which would then be auto-debited in the hospital accounts. The Chief Minister also directed the officials to modernize and strengthen cancer departments in seven medical colleges across the state. He instructed the officials to install four Linear Accelerator (LINAC) machines in teach- ing hospitals located in Vijayawada, Anantapur, Kakinada, and Guntur.
