Date:15/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/15/stories/2008111551980300.htm

Kerala - Kozhikode

Plea for free cancer treatment

Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE: The Blood Patients Protection Council has appealed to the government to provide free medical care to children undergoing treatment for cancer at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital.

General convener of the forum Kareem Karassery said the government must stop collecting fees from leukaemia and other cancer afflicted children on an urgent basis. Fee was collected from these patients even for scanning, a facility at the hospital. Though the promise of free treatment for children suffering from cancer had been made by the authorities many times, it was yet to be implemented.

More than 10 years back, an assurance was made by the then Health Minister V.M. Sudheeran that medical care would be provided free by the government to children suffering from blood cancer and similar terminal diseases. The promise was yet to be fulfilled, he said.

Again in February, the children afflicted with cancer and their parents had submitted a memorandum to the superintendent of the Institute of Maternal and Child Health (IMCH) asking the authorities to provide free treatment to this section of patients.

The IMCH authorities despite the assurance given have failed to provide free treatment.

Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi had also stated that free treatment would be provided to children afflicted with cancer but no steps had been initiated in this direction, Mr. Karassery said.