Healthcare for all: Closing the care gap in cancer treatment

On World Cancer Day 2022, Chander Shekhar Sibal, Senior Vice President, Medical Division, Fujifilm India highlights that it is important to focus on providing access to early diagnostic and screening facilities to the masses

Before the coronavirus outbreak, the world had been and continues to fight against a true people’s enemy, an endemic in the form of cancer. In the near future, while we might emerge victorious and put Covid-19 to rest, cancer has become a bigger threat to health and humankind over a period of time. According to the National Health Profile, cancer cases in India increased by nearly 324 per cent from 2017 to 2018, but only 29 per cent from 2020 to 2021. Looking at the statistics, one would be remiss to think that there was a steep decline in the number of cancer cases. However, due to the shift of focus on the novel coronavirus pandemic, a large number of cancer cases were missed. This is likely to be witnessed by our already-burdened healthcare system when cancer patients and those of other ailments start visiting their healthcare providers again.

To put an emphasis on the missed cases and make the necessary medical attention available to all, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) has decided to theme this year’s World Cancer Day with “Close the Care Gap”. Currently, the biggest threat to a healthy world is the lack of medical screening facilities for all. While metro capitals and cities provide the best world class medical technologies through hospitals and other facilities, patients in the tier 2 & 3 regions of the country still await a fully functioning one-stop health check-up centre. It is time for us to recognise ‘access to healthcare’ as a basic human right and take steps to remedy this and make the world a healthier place.

Financial burden

The UICC has been an advocate of providing affordable cancer related treatment to the masses, since the disease not only pertains to healthcare but also one’s finances. Industry reports estimate that the out of pocket expense for cancer treatment the highest among ailments: this expense is about three-times in private healthcare than that in public healthcare facilities. In India, about 40 per cent of cancer hospitalisation

cases are financed through the sale of assets, borrowings or crowd-fundings. Over 60 per cent of people who opt for private care in the country incur out of pocket expenditure in excess of 20 per cent of their annual per capita household expenditure. This is a major reason for people to drop out of the full course of treatment and shift out of the hospital, accepting their fate and financial problems.

We can fight cancer together with early diagnosis

India is a land of opportunities and Indians hold the required expertise at developing affordable and efficient technologies across fields. However, there needs to be a push from the authorities to replicate that same energy towards fighting cancer. In India and other developing countries, the term ‘cancer’ often resonates with fear and shock because of the high treatment costs and a poor chance of survival. This makes it even more important for us to shed that perception and move towards a common cancer-eradicating goal.

Despite the progressing research on the subject, we still know little about the origins of the disease. However, with years of medical practice under their belt, the medical fraternity has come to a consensus which states that early diagnosis and reducing delays in screening is our best bet against cancer. Many studies show that screening reduces mortality levels among women with breast cancer by 40 per cent.

Therefore, it is important to focus on providing access to early diagnostic and screening facilities to the masses, organise health awareness camps,and  install medical devices like CT Scanners, MRIs, Ultrasound and Mammography machines in hospitals in distant areas. With the knowledge they hold,  organisations working in this field can educate the general population about cancer, its potential causes and available treatments to reduce the fear in the masses.

This World Cancer Day, Fujifilm India urges the government, medical equipment manufacturers and hospitals to join hands and lead the fight against cancer by raising awareness around early detection and its benefits.  It is the NEVER STOP attitude of our country that can one day lead us to victory over cancer.