Opposition concerned about lack of functioning cancer diagnostic equipment

Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr Alfred Dawes is asserting that Jamaica is facing a “cancer crisis” due to the lack of properly functioning diagnostic equipment in the island’s hospitals.

Speaking at a press conference today, Dawes, who is also a medical doctor, said this impedes the ability of healthcare workers to detect cancers early.

“We are facing a cancer crisis. If you look at the Kingston Public Hospital, which does a lot of the cancers, they cannot get CAT scans and MRIs to properly stage the diseases and work up patients, even get proper investigation like colonoscopies to diagnose the cancers at an early stage. We’re seeing far more advanced cancers being presented and the outcomes are a lot worse,” he charged.

He said many patients cannot afford to do scans privately, as the government has discontinued covering the costs, which in turn causes further delay to their treatment.

“A lot of people who cannot afford these diagnostic equipment simply cannot get them, and so they have to wait for inordinately long periods of time to come up with the funds before they can get these scans, and that delays definitive treatments,” he said.

“It simply means that if you are poor and cannot afford to pay for private diagnostics right now, you are far worse than somebody who can call in a favour or find the money to pay for such diagnostics,” he added.

Under the Government’s public-private partnership in the sector, public hospitals have been accessing some diagnostic services at private entities.

The Government had reportedly spent close to $1 billion each year for patients to access these services in the private sector.

- Sashana Small

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