RTI reveals cancer cases higher in Punjab
Tuesday, 18/09/2012
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120918/punjab.htm#8
Faridkot : The number of cancer patients in Punjab is much higher than the estimates rolled out by the state health department in Punjab Vidhan Sabha during the budget session in June this year.
While the health department claimed detecting 5,276 cancer patients in Punjab, the information procured under the RTI by a voluntary organisation, Bhai Kanhaiya Cancer Roko Sewa Society in Faridkot, revealed that as many as 6,434 cancer patients were presently receiving treatment at just two government medical colleges in Punjab.
While there are other government, private, charitable hospitals in and outside Punjab from where the patients from the state are receiving treatment, summing up the cancer cases to just 5,276 by the health department in Punjab is a wrong assessment of the problem, said Gurpreet Singh Chandbaja, the president of the society.
The health department had claimed there were 147 cancer patients in Faridkot. But the information procured under the RTI revealed that 865 cancer patients of Faridkot were receiving treatment at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (GGSMC) in Faridkot. And 172 of the patients in Faridkot were receiving treatment at the Government Medical College in Patiala, thus taking the figure to 1,037, said Chandbaja.
