Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme is not only giving free treatment to the citizens, but it is also helping in the early detection of cancer.
A huge number of cancer patients have benefited from the scheme, said the Prime Minister after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone of cancer hospitals across Assam.
The Prime Minister said before the launch of the scheme, people did not get treated for cancer fearing the financial burden on their children.
Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme, which covers over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families providing coverage upto Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
"Cancer has been a big problem not only in Assam but also in the Northeast. Our poorest, middle-class families are the most affected by this. Until a few years ago, patients had to travel to big cities for cancer treatment," the Prime Minister said.
Recalling the past, PM Modi said there was a time when people celebrated the opening of one hospital in seven years.
Highlighting the changed scenario, the Prime Minister said, "I have been told three more cancer hospitals will be ready for your service in a few months."
Lauding the efforts of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the Prime Minister said that it focused on seven things in terms of health including preventive healthcare including through yoga and swachhta campaigns, early detection through new testing centres, primary healthcare centres in every district, free treatment of upto Rs 5,00,000 under Ayushman Bharat, focus on augmenting health infrastructure even in remotest areas, increasing workforce in the health sector and digitisation of healthcare services under 'One Nation, One Health'.
The Prime Minister along with industrialist Ratan Tata inaugurated seven state-of-the-art cancer hospitals and laid the foundation stone for seven new cancer hospitals.
The cancer hospitals inaugurated today are built at Dibrugarh, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Darrang, Tezpur, Lakhimpur, and Jorhat.
The seven new cancer hospitals, whose foundation stone was laid today, would be at Dhubri, Nalbari, Goalpara, Nagaon, Sivasagar, Tinsukia and Golaghat.
( With inputs from ANI )
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