Health Minister V S Sivakumar said on Saturday that the government would set up cancer care centres in all districts with latest facilities, including telemedicine, by January.
Inaugurating the function in connection with the distribution of financial assistance to cancer patients sponsored by the District Cancer Care Society at the collectorate conference hall here, the Health Minister said that by setting up modern cancer care centres at district-levels, the patients would get the facility for treatment of cancer in the district itself instead of having to approach Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram and Malabar Cancer Centre in Kozhikode.
The State Government sought Rs 50 lakh assistance from the National Rural Health Mission for setting up of district-level cancer care centres, the minister said.
35 New Karunya Medical Shops
Sivakumar said that the government would set up 35 Karunya medical shops across the state. The shops would be established with the objective of making available medicines cheaper by 20 to 90 per cent than in the private medical stores, he said. The government would give generic medicines free of cost to people belonging to BPL families, Sivakumar said. Lauding the District Cancer Care Society for its work, the minister distributed `10,000 each to 40 cancer patients at the function.
K Sivadasan Nair MLA, presided over the meeting. MLAs Mathew T Thomas, Chittayam Gopakumar, district panchayat president Babu George and District Collector P Venugopal, among others, spoke.