Researchers from premier medical institutes write primary care linked screening programs at Health and Wellness Centres will help early detection
Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), the tertiary care arm of Ayushman Bharat (AB) which is the flagship health programme of the NDA government has eased access to cancer care, a new study published in The Lancet Regional Health has concluded.
The researchers compared treatment timelines in cancer patients before and after 2018, when AB was launched and also access to treatment for patients who were enrolled under the public health insurance scheme and those that were not. “As compared to patients who were diagnosed between 1995 and 2017, those diagnosed after 2018 had a 36% higher odds of timely initiation of treatment within 30 days. Upon stratifying by enrolment under PMJAY, we found that while the access for timely treatment initiation increased by 33% for those who were not enrolled, vs. 90% among those enrolled under PM-JAY. Overall, this shows significant improvement in timely initiation of cancer treatment as a result of introduction of PM-JAY,” wrote researchers from premier medical institutes including PGIMER Chandigarh, AIIMS New Delhi and Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.
PMJAY entitles eligible families to an annual health cover of Rs 5 lakh. Originally aimed to cover about 55 crore Indians, it was recently expanded to bring all Indians aged over 70 years under its ambit with and additional Rs 5 lakh cover for such individuals in eligible families. In families that are not eligible, the senior person alone would get the Rs 5 lakh cover.
PMJAY entitles eligible families to an annual health cover of Rs 5 lakh. It was recently expanded to bring all Indians aged over 70 years
Outlining the barriers to accessing timely care, the researchers also highlighted the need to have effective screening programmes to ensure the disease gets caught at an early stage. “The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases & Stroke (NPCDCS), now renamed as National Programme for Prevention & Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD) has been in operation since November 2016, however population coverage has been extremely low. Only 1.1% population have received cervical cancer screening, and less than 1% have received breast or oral cancer screening till date. The coverage of screening needs to be expanded so that early detection is undertaken,” they wrote.
