Question : Health Minister’s Discretionary Grant

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

(a) the details of the funds allocated for Health Minister’s Cancer Patient Fund (HMCP F) and Health Minister ’s Discretionary Grant (HMDG) during the last two years;

(b) whether the Government has conducted a study to identify cancer and heart patients below the poverty line and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Government is providing financial assistance to the such treatment centres as well as BPL category patients to bear the cost of the treatment and if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the Government is accepting donations for this fund; and

(e) if so, the details of the amount received by donors during the last two years?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND
FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI FAGGAN SINGH KULASTE)

(a): Health Minister’s Cancer Patient Fund (HMCPF) has been established within Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) which has a separate Corpus Fund. An amount of Rs. 100.00 crore has been placed in the Corpus Fund and the earnings from the Corpus Fund accruing out of interest are utilized for providing financial assistance to cancer patients, through 27 Regional Cancer Centres (RCC) located all over India. The interest earned on corpus fund of HMCPF and the funds allocated under Health Minister’s Discretionary Grant (HMDG) during last two years is at Annexure-I.

(b): No such type of study has been conducted so far by the Government.

(c): Yes, the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) has been set up for providing for financial assistance to patients, living below poverty line who are suffering from major life threatening diseases, to receive medical treatment at any of the super specialty Govt. hospitals / institutes or other Govt. hospitals. The financial assistance to such patients is released as a one time grant, to the Medical Superintendent of the hospital in which the patient is receiving treatment. Financial powers have been delegated to the Medical Superintendents/Directors of some selected hospitals/institutes to sanction financial assistance up to Rs. 2,00,000/- in each eligible case reporting for treatment in their respective Hospital/Institute and upto Rs. 5,00,000/- in emergency cases. The hospitals refer the cases to RAN Headquarters, where the amount of treatment exceeds Rs.2.00 lakh. Further, GOI has launched “ national Programmes for Prevention and Control of Cancer, diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NCPDCS)” which is under implementation in all States/UTs for reducing burden of Non- Communicable diseases. From FY 2015-16 onwards, consolidated funds for NCD Programmes including NPCDCS are being released to States/UTs from NCD Flexipool by NHM. The programme covers patients affected with Nin-communicable Diseases irrespective of the financial status of the patient.

(d): Yes, the Government is accepting donations under Health Minister’s Cancer Patient Fund (HMCPF) for the treatment of cancer patients.

(e): The details of amount received from donors during last two years is at Annexure-II.