NEW DELHI, Nov 20 - In a fresh initiative to boost healthcare facilities, Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh today announced super-specialty courses for doctors from the region.
The super-speciality course will include provision for Doctor of Medicine (DM) and Master of Chirurgiae (MCh) courses in medical institutions outside North East, as well as option of short duration training up to six months in super-specialty. The co-chairman of the reputed Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai, Dr Hemanth Raj was present in the meeting.
Addressing a meeting of Principal Secretaries of Health from north-eastern States, Dr Singh said, to begin with, a six-month short-term training in Medical Oncology and Surgical Oncology will be undertaken from January 1, 2016 at the Adyar Cancer Institute. The cost and financial implications of this training course will be borne by the Ministry of DoNER, he added.
The same institute will also seek approval from the Medical Council of India (MCI) to start a three-year DM Oncology and MCh Oncology Surgery degree course from next academic year, he added.
The DoNER Minister said that the decision to make a beginning with super-specialty training in Oncology was prompted by the statistical figures, which indicated that the prevalence of cancer is highest in the country among the north-eastern States, with Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya reporting highest cancer prevalence, predominantly the cancer of head and neck.
In addition, Dr Singh said, the other non-communicable diseases, like diabetes and heart attack, have also shown upsurge in the north-eastern region. For this, he said, the DoNER Ministry has sought the collaboration of the Union Ministry of Health for their support through programmes meant for control of non-communicable diseases and at the same time, corporate hospitals have also been asked to come forward.
The representatives of the Apollo chain of hospitals, who also attended the meeting, were asked by Dr Singh to immediately start diabetes clinics and Apollo OPDs in North East for which accommodation can be provided to them. He also advised the State Health Secretaries to deliberate with the respective political dispensations to provide land and other infrastructure facilities for setting up medical colleges and paramedical training schools under �Public-Private Participation� arrangement.
