West Bengal caps cancer treatment rates under Swasthya Sathi

KOLKATA: The state government on Thursday fixed the rates for cancer treatment procedures - radiation therapy and nuclear medicine therapy - under the Swasthya Sathi scheme. The measure comes a day after the government's attempt to prevent overuse of chemotherapy drugs.
"The package for some drugs used in cancer treatment was not defined or specified so far," said a health official. "Earlier, hospitals would upload the invoice while seeking reimbursement from the government. Now, the rates have been clearly specified and capped for each category of drugs and also for radiation therapy," he added.
Thursday's order also advises patients to avail themselves of radiation therapy from government-run medical colleges and hospitals.
Health department sources said a section of doctors were referring cancer patients to private hospitals, which they were associated with. Some of these cases were small private hospitals which do not even have a complete cancer set-up consisting of medical, radiation and surgical oncology units.
"Also, the cost of radiation therapy in some cases is as high as Rs 1.5 lakh per cycle, whereas the coverage under Swasthya Sathi is Rs 5 lakh (per year)," the official said. "So, in many cases, patients were finding it difficult, or even impossible, to complete radiation therapy in private hospitals," he added.
Officials said the state-of-the-art machines the government has installed for radiation therapy in its hospitals in the last two years were not being utilised to the fullest. Despite the increase in number of cancer patients, some government hospitals were seeing a decline in patients, they said.
"Around 5,000 patients a year used to take radiation therapy in our hospital till even 2016, but the number now stands at 4,500 a year. Given the increasing occurrence of cancer, the number should go up every year. One reason could be more patients getting treated at private hospitals under Swasthya Sathi. With our existing infrastructure, we can cater to double the number of patients we are tending to at present," said a radiation oncologist at NRS Medical College and Hospital, which has the largest radiation facility among all state-run medical colleges.
In the three medical colleges in Kolkata that have radiation therapy facilities, each machine tends to cater to between 60 and 70 patients a day, almost the same as that of private hospitals with complete cancer units. This is in contrast to higher patient load in government hospitals.
Most big private hospitals, however, said that Swasthya Sathi patients coming for cancer treatment mostly come on their own. Health officials said it was mainly smaller hospitals that were "misusing the system". "Going by the new advisory, we can refer Swasthya Sathi cancer patients to government hospitals," said an official of a private hospital in Kolkata.