Dr Jitendra Singh announces superspeciality courses for Northeast doctors As a new initiative for the Northeast, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today announced super-specialty courses for doctors from the eight North-Eastern States. This will include provision for Doctor of Medicine (DM) and Master of Chirurgiae (Mch) courses in medical institutions outside Northeast as well as option of short duration training up to six months in super-specialty. Addressing a meeting of Principal Secretaries of Health from North-Eastern States, here today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, to begin with, a six months short-term training in Medical Oncology and Surgical Oncology will be undertaken from January 1, 2016 at the Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai. The cost and financial implications of this training course will be borne by the Ministry of DoNER, he said. Meanwhile, the same Institute will also seek approval from Medical Council of India (MCI) to start a three-year DM Oncology and Mch Oncology Surgery degree course from next academic year, he added. Dr Jitendra Singh said that the decision to make a beginning with super-specialty training in Oncology was prompted by the statistical figures which indicated that the prevalence of cancer is highest in the country among the North-Eastern States, with Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya among the first three States with highest cancer prevalence, predominantly the cancer of head and neck. The Co-Chairman of the reputed Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai, Dr Hemanth Raj was present in today's meeting. In addition, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the other non-communicable diseases like Diabetes and heart attack have also shown upsurge in the North-Eastern region. For this, he said, the DoNER Ministry has sought the collaboration of the Union Ministry of Health for their support through programmes meant for control of non-communicable diseases and at the same time, corporate hospitals have also been asked to come forward. The representatives of the Apollo chain of Hospitals, who attended today's meeting, were asked by Dr Jitendra Singh to immediately start Diabetes clinics and Apollo OPDs in Northeast for which accommodation can be provided to them. He also advised the State Health Secretaries to deliberate with the respective political dispensations to provide land etc., for setting up medical college and paramedical training schools under 'Public-Private Participation' (PPP) arrangement. Union Secretary DoNER Shri Naveen Verma, Secretary NEC Shri Ram Muivah, Advisor Health to Ministry of DoNER, Dr. Bamin Tanda and senior officers of Union Ministries of DoNER and Health were present in the meeting.
