State-run hospitals will have tobacco de-addiction centres

The city doctors have on Tuesday met Dr. Deepak Sawant, State Health Minister and appealed him to start tobacco de-addiction centres in state-run hospitals in Maharashtra.

Dr. Sawant has primarily agreed to the demand and have asked the doctors to give detailed proposal to the government so that they can start with the work immediately.

Dr. Sanjay Sharma, oncosurgeon and director of Asian Cancer Institute, said that they handed over the appeal letter to Dr. Sawant at Mantralaya on Tuesday.

“Dr. Sawant has accepted our demand for establishing tobacco de-addiction centres and within two weeks the plan of action will be shared with him,” said Dr. Sharma.

Dr. Ramakant Deshpande, oncologist and executive chairman of the Asian Cancer Institute said that in next six months, the government will set up de-addiction centres in the hospitals.

“The Asian Cancer Institute is starting its own tobacco de-addiction centre, which will be a first-of-itskind initiative in a private hospital. With the help of government we can create awareness and can spread messages to say ‘No to Tobacco’,” added Dr. Deshpande.

Dr. Sawant said that other Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan have started tobacco cessation programmes to help their citizens get rid of tobacco so why should not we follow that?

“We need to robust tobacco cessation programmes in our government hospitals to help them quit tobacco consumption,” added Dr. Sawant.

According to a survey, in India, 1.2 lakh people die every year due to tobacco consumption. The economic burden of tobacco consumption is around Rs 1,04,500 crore per annum.

“The number is expected to shoot up to 1.5 lakh in five years. Thirty percent of the estimated 16.5 lakh new cancer cases in 2020 will be directly related to tobacco and can be prevented,” added Dr. Deshpande.