Pre-approved loans to make cancer treatment easier

NAGPUR: The time spent in gathering money for cancer treatment can worsen the health of the patient, taking him from stage one to the next. HCG NCHRI cancer centre, Nagpur, has launched a programme to provide a solution to this, and ease the process of treatment. Launched on Sunday, which also marked World Cancer Day, the centre will enable patients to avail cancer treatment and diagnosis by way of pre-approved short-term finance with zero per cent interest.
“In order to get financial relief from either CM Fund, or PM fund, it takes nearly two to three months’ time.However, through this facility, the patients will be able to avail a loan of up to Rs 5 lakh. They will be able to start their treatment next day itself,” said director Ajay Mehta, at a press conference held to promote the facility.
Patients can avail the loan for any type of cancer treatment, and for the tenure of one year, the loan would be interest free. If the tenure would be more than one year, they would be charged fixed simple interest rate.
“We have partnered with Arogya Microfinance, wherein the interest for those loans will be paid by the hospital, and the company in turn would benefit from the volume of cases,” said regional head Ritendra Singh Tomar.
The centre has been undertaking two medical camps in a month to promote the idea in rural areas. The centre on Sunday also organized a cancer awareness programme and encouraged its prevention, detection and treatment procedure.
The event was headlined by Dr Nishad Dhakke, Atul Mishra, Dr Stuti, Dr Pushpendra Hirapara and Dr Sandeep Puppalwar, who answered several cancer-related queries posed to them by director Dr Suchitra Mehta.
The Centre is also readying to open a tobacco de-addiction centre at its premises in Kalamna and its branch in Shankar Nagar
Ajay Mehta cited ICMR data, which stated that India is likely to have 17.3 lakh new cases of cancer and over 8.8 lakh deaths due to the disease, majorly dominated by cancers of breast, lung and cervix. Fifty per cent of cancers in men and twenty per cent in women can directly be attributed to tobacco use. Over 10 lakh deaths occur due to tobacco in India annually and of these 1 lakh are in Maharashtra alone.
The Centre is also readying to open a tobacco de-addiction centre at its premises in Kalamna and its branch in Shankar Nagar, making use of the counselling approach to curb cancer. “We will be going to colleges and corporates to target young generation and curb passive smoking,” said Tomar.