Kolkata: To improve access to healthcare facilities for the rising number of cancer patients in India, 25 world-class private cancer care centres would be set up across the country at an investment of Rs 720 crore.
GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company, today announced a strategic partnership with Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI) to develop these cancer care centres which will offer latest technology for diagnosing and treating cancer.
"We believe a partnership like this one presents a great opportunity to confront India's cancer challenge head on," John Dineen, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, said in a statement here.
The new centres will follow the same standards of care found at the world's top cancer hospitals delivered at affordable price points, it said.
The network will be built at an investment of Rs 720 crore over a period of five years.
The incidence of cancer is sharply rising in India with a prevalence of 3 million cases and an addition of 1.23 million new cases being reported every year.
The mortality rates are very high due to late detection, access and affordability to care. Estimates suggest every two minutes three patients succumb to this deadly and costly disease.
CTSI president and CEO Joe Nicholas said they have built a proven healthcare delivery model tailored to making the highest quality cancer care accessible and affordable.
They aim to elevate the access, affordability and standard of cancer care in India.
GE and CTSI will configure the network in a hub-and-spoke fashion, with all the centers linked by a sophisticated IT network to a hub and supported by a multi-national group of clinicians, and administrators.
The hub will be a centre of excellence with full diagnostic imaging and treatment capabilities while the spoke will have the ability to deliver a range of screening, staging and treatment options, the statement said.
The first hub center, American Oncology Institute, CTSI's international brand, is already operational in Hyderabad while the first spoke or remote centre is being set up in Andhra Pradesh.
