The "largest" network of hospitals under Tata Trusts’ cancer control model is coming up in Assam, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to inaugurate seven out of a total 17 such medical facilities on Thursday, officials said. Besides catering to Assam, the network of hospitals will serve the entire northeastern region, as the locations have been strategically chosen to ensure that patients from bordering states can also avail the service, they said.

Modi is also expected to lay the foundation of another seven hospitals under the project at the event in Dibrugarh, while three more that are in advanced stage of completion, will be opened later this year, the officials said. “These hospitals are under the Assam Cancer Care Foundation (ACCF), a collaboration between the Assam government and Tata Trusts for setting up cancer care units in the state, with the foundation for the project laid in June 2018,” a Tata Trusts spokesperson said. It had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state government during the Advantage Assam - Global Investment Summit 2018, giving a formal shape to the project.

“The Prime Minister will inaugurate the first seven hospitals and Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata will also be present on the occasion,” he said. The seven hospitals that will be inaugurated are at Dibrugarh, Barpeta, Tezpur, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Kokrajhar and Darrang. The foundation of the ones at Dhubri, Goalpara, Golaghat, Sivasagar, Nalbari, Nagaon and Tinsukia will also be laid in the same programme.

The spokesperson said the seven hospitals that would be inaugurated will be able to serve 30,000 patients per year, while up to 50,000 patients can get treatment when all 17 hospitals are in operation. Besides providing treatment, early detection and diagnosis are important factors in the Distributed Cancer Control Model with a four-level step down system, he said.

“We want to improve the early to late detection ratio from existing 30:70 to 70:30, and Level 4 (L4) of the model covers the outreach initiatives like awareness, screening, patient navigation and follow-up, including palliative care, which over a period of time, will help in bringing down the cancer care load,” he said. Tata Trusts has also deployed a comprehensive sourcing and upskilling strategy to recruit different categories of healthcare professionals, he said. The spokesperson said Tata Trusts’ will play an advisory role in running the cancer hospitals in Assam, while the ACCF would look after their functioning.

(With PTI inputs)