Ajai Kumar,
Founder and Chairman, HCG

Though cancer treatment in India is cheapest globally, still Indian patients find it unaffordable. Working on this line, Health Care Global Enterprise (HCG), has opened up new avenues in cancer care. Ajai Kumar, Founder and Chairman, HCG talks to Sruti Ghoshal, ENN

We have changed the face of cancer treatment in India with 27 centres and 20 more coming, we are the largest group in cancer care

Oral cancer is the 6th most common cancer reported globally and India ranks 8th among nations. How is HCG helping in reducing the incidences of oral cancer
Oral cancer is prent in certain sections of the society. Historically, oral cancer was caused due to smoking and chewing of tobacco. HCG has contributed largely in the anti-smoking campaign. We wrote a lot of petitions pertaining to non-smoking in public places. We have been the forefront for decades in carrying out anti-smoking campaigns. We have conducted many screening camps, where they detect cancer in its earliest stages. We will be shortly starting a bus service in parts of North Karnataka where they will have all the equipments for pre-screening. The Government of Karnataka has asked us to initiate this bus service in other parts of Karnataka as well. Our ultimate goal is to avoid relapse of cancer once its treated.

Oral cancer is mainly caused due to chewing of tobacco. Has HCG tied up with Karnataka Anti- tobacco Cell to curb this? We are working with them and recently we did a campaign. We conducted a rally in Mysore and other places. We believe HCG being largest cancer care  group; we can definitely make a great impact on the social aspect.

What are the steps that HCG has taken to make cancer treatment more affordable?
The perspective that people have about cancer treatment is that it is very expensive, but it is how one looks at it. India is the cheapest healthcare provider in the world and cancer care is also among the cheapest in the world. If you look at technologies, like Linear Accelerator, Cyber Knife, the cost to the customer in Africa is double than that in India. So we have mastered the technique of doing it at a low cost. Similarly, lot of generic drugs are available at a very low costs and that has made a huge difference. But the problem that we face in India is that majority of people belong to the BPL or lower middle class for whom this cheap treatment is also unaffordable. But there is a ray of hope; We have started working with different governments like the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra and have come up with Arogyashree, a scheme for the BPLwhereby we pay for their medical costs, like fooding and lodging. As a foundation we have an excellent system of medicosocial workers. We make sure that no patient is denied treatment because of his/ hereconomic background. On this note Harvard Business School did a study on us, showing that how you can create an enterprise in healthcare which maybe a corporate enterprise for profit, at the same time can take care of all sections of the society. Last year our foundation took up the treatment of 25 children. So we have a great social responsibility and that is why we define ourselves as corporate with a heart.

Have you set up any hospitals in rural Karnataka for delivering cost-effective treatment for the rural people?
We have set up several hospitals in the  tier II and Tier III cities. Our whole model is based on Hub and Spoke model. The Bangalore centre in the Hub and around this we have many clinics and hospitals which are connected to the Hub hospital through either video conferencing or by other means. We have built centres in Mysore, Shimoga and other places. We have a big centre coming up in Gulbarga. Around it we create screening centre. We are also working with the government to set up nodal points for screening. We have spread our roots almost all over the country. We have changed the face of cancer treatment in India. With 27 centres and 20 more coming up, we are the largest group in cancer care. So our Hub and Spoke model has enabled our patients to seek treatment at the nearest location and head back home on the same day rather than staying away from home for months.

 What are the new technologies introduced in chemotherapy and radiation oncology?
In the field of medical technology we have replaced Cobalt with Linear  Accelerator. In Linear Accelerator we have adopted high-end therapy where the focus is on treating cancer and not the normal tissues. Now we also have Cyber Knife, where we can treat tumours only avoiding all other normal tissue. Another high-end therapy that we are working on is proton therapy where there wont be any exit or entrance doors. We are planning to launch that in India in another two to three years. In surgeries also we are bringing new innovations and working on complicated surgeries. We are also doing robotic surgery now. We have also introduced personalised medicines where patients are treated on the basis of molecular diagnostics. We have also approved for a genetic sequencing machine which is the first time in India. Through this we can sequence and differentiate different chemotherapy for different patients. This is going to make a huge impact on deciding what should be the right treatment.


FACT FILE

Cancer is the second most commondisease in India.
As per Indian population census, the mortality due to cancer is alarmingly high
Cancer prence in India is estimated to be around 2.5 million, with over 8,00,000 new cases and 5,50,000 deaths occurring    each year


Do you think that government hospitals should also work towards bringing ICT in the hospitals?
I have different perspective. The Government should work towards the improvement of the Primary Health Care system, anaemia, malnutrition among women and children. It is very difficult to focus on everything and be a monitoring agent. The government through its different schemes should empower the private enterprises and endow them with the work of helping the poor. So the governments role has to be clearly defined as a monitoring agency and funding the poor and not actually getting into the actual treatment of these complicated procedures, because the human resources put in to maintain the technology is very difficult. So the government in my view should refrain from being in the business of putting up hospitals.

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