HCG Cancer Hospital conducts webinar with patients

Bengaluru: To commemorate the World Cancer Day this year, HCG Cancer Hospital, one of India's largest dedicated cancer care chains, conducted a live webinar session on Friday based on the theme #CloseTheCareGap. This initiative was aimed at identifying and addressing the various barriers to accessible cancer care across the globe.

The webinar focused on the existing inequalities in cancer care, besides raising awareness on timely cancer treatment, the need to make it easily accessible, as also busting the popular misconception that medicines and treatment facilities for cancer patients are in short supply.

The key speaker of the live webinar was Dr B.S. Ajai Kumar, Executive Chairman of HCG Cancer Hospitals, and it was moderated by Dr Chandrika Kambam, Director – Clinical Services, Health Care Global Enterprises Limited. The webinar saw the proactive participation of five cancer patients: Dilip Ghosal from HCG EKO Cancer Centre, Kolkata; Preetha Prabhakar from HCG Cancer Centre, Mumbai, Devesh from HCG Cancer Centre, Jaipur; Inderpal Kaur from HCG Cancer Hospital, Bengaluru; and Surendra Tyagi from HCG Cancer Centre, Ahmedabad. More importantly, the webinar highlighted the ways through which cancer care gaps can be minimized to serve the larger cause of patients and their families.

'Close the Care Gap' is a three-year campaign designed to raise awareness on the numerous barriers that prevent desirable treatment outcomes across the globe. The campaign highlights the need to challenge the flawed assumptions around cancer care and work towards eliminating the widespread discrimination in cancer care services based on diversity of ethnicity, religion, region, and economic status that adversely affects not only cancer patients but their families too.

Commenting on the theme Close The Care Gap, Dr B S Ajai Kumar, Executive Chairman, HCG Cancer Hospital said, "Raising awareness about cancer, its therapies, and busting prevalent myths around cancer care is always a priority for us and this year, we have hosted a virtual webinar to amplify the impact of the #CloseTheCareGap Campaign. Every individual has the right to obtain the right treatment the very first time, and this pandemic has urged all of us to ensure the wellness and wellbeing of one and all, devoid of any bias or prejudice whatsoever. It is high time we bridged all gaps to make healthcare accessible and available to everyone."