Healthcare staff undergo chemotherapy training for Day Care Cancer Centres
Delhi State Cancer Institute
(DSCI) will begin hands-on
chemotherapy training
for doctors and nursing staff from Friday in a bid to set up
Day Care Cancer Centres
(DCCCs) across the city.
The initiative is part of a national rollout announced in the Union Budget, under which 200 DCCCs are set to be established in district hospitals during 2025-26 to expand access to
cancer care
and reduce the load on tertiary hospitals.
DSCI has been designated the nodal training centre under the Prime Minister's DCCC initiative. "This initiative aims to enhance the capacity of healthcare professionals in cancer care, focusing on safe chemotherapy drug handling, patient monitoring, and toxicity management, in line with MoHFW guidelines," said Dr Diwakar, director, DSCI.
According to a health department order, 28 healthcare professionals, including general duty medical officers (GDMOs) from four govt hospitals-Janakpuri Super Speciality, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Rao Tula Ram, and Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital-will undergo training in four batches between July 18 and Nov 19.
"This is a novel approach by the govt to decentralise cancer care," said Dr Pragya Shukla, head of clinical oncology at DSCI and in charge of the training programme. The training will include chemotherapy drug administration, monitoring, and managing treatment-related toxicities.
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Time of India
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Over 200 cancer day care centres to be established across India: Government
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But the Centre's Clinical Establishment (Central Government) Amendment Rules 2020 did not address the issue, allowing 'unqualified and unregistered non-medical persons viz MSc/PhD were authorised to issue pathology reports without the signature/counter signature of a pathologist,' according to Jain. Jain challenged these amended rules, and in August 2021, also moved court highlighting an RT-PCR testing 'scam' during the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar that year where one lakh fake tests were reportedly conducted on devotees by unqualified intermediaries. 'The accused diagnostic labs in Delhi and Haryana were able to collect samples and conduct a huge number of tests where they have no sample collection centres at Uttarakhand. It is clear that a scam of such enormity has only been possible because of the lack of essential minimum standards on the issue of sample collection/sample collection centres and sample transport policy,' Jain had argued in his submission. In 2023, the Delhi High Court directed the Centre to consider Jain's plea as a representation and decide a solution in three months. In May 2023, the government held a meeting under the chairmanship of the Additional Director-General of Health Services, New Delhi, where Jain too was invited to make his representation. After the meeting, the government decided to constitute four sub-committees of experts — pathology, biochemistry, hematology and microbiology — to define standards of procedure (SOPs) for sample collection, collection centres and sample transport policy. When these guidelines were not notified even a year later, Jain in May 2024 moved the Delhi High Court again, accusing the government of wilful disobedience of the court's order. It is in this matter that the MoHFW has now assured the court that a policy will be notified at the earliest. Taking the ministry's submission on record, the court instructed that the standards be notified expeditiously, with a direction that the process 'may be accomplished within the next three months'.
