Buy your own needles - UWHI tells patients to purchase their own syringes for breast biopsy
Published:Sunday | May 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
PATIENTS NEEDING to have breast biopsies at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) cannot have this crucial procedure done unless they bring their own needles.
This is the hospital's 'new' policy, an employee of the teaching hospital's mammography unit told The Sunday Gleaner. "We used to have the needles, but we don't have them in stock anymore," the employee said.
A breast biopsy is an important part of the screening process for patients suspected of having malignant tumours.
Previously, the hospital would include the cost of the needles in the total cost of the operation. Now, patients have to go and get it themselves.
The needles patients are told to purchase are described as 14-gauge core biopsy needles. Some experts believe that the use of these 14-gauge needles should be the standard of care. Two of these needles cost approximately $12,000 in Jamaica.
Pay upfront
Chief executive officer of the UHWI, Dr Trevor McCartney, told The Sunday Gleaner that the hospital ran out of biopsy needles because its US-based supplier will not provide the goods unless the Government pays upfront. It has been like this for three months, he said.
"We have a problem. We had an order placed with Cook Medical for all the equipment (needed) for interventional radiology. But Cook Medical is demanding prepayment before the goods can be supplied, and this goes against the Government of Jamaica's procurement guidelines," said McCartney.
Attempts to iron out a compromise with the supplier, which included the posting of a bond, have hit a wall as the company will not budge.
"So it is easier if we ask the patients to buy it of their own accord because it is available locally," he said.
If not addressed quickly, the supplier snag will also affect the stock of special tubes used by the hospital.
Earlier this year, a UHWI patient who needed to have a bilateral biopsy done was told to go and purchase the needles or she could not have the test done.
Here is her story.
On March 24, 2011,Melvanrie Gaynor visited the Jamaica Cancer Society to do a mammogram. After the screening, the society contacted Gaynor and told her that she needed to visit the UHWI to get an ultrasound done. Those were the doctor's orders.
She did. The ultrasound showed abnormal legions, one in each breast. Gaynor was advised to do a biopsy to determine malignancy. The doctor subsequently told Gaynor to speak with the receptionist, who would inform her of the way forward. This was when she found out that in order for the biopsy to be done, she would have to go to West Indies Radiology Outsourcing Limited (WIROL) on Ruthven Road to purchase the pair of needles needed for the operation.
What was more distressing was the fact that the receptionist reportedly told Gaynor that she "would have to buy" the needles at that particular entity and "not anywhere else" because if she did, the needles "wouldn't be used".
"She said if they were out of stock, I should wait until the stock is replenished," Gaynor revealed.
When our news team contacted the mammography unit in the radiology department of the hospital, an employee said that needles could be bought elsewhere, but this particular entity was recommended because the needles sold by WIROL usually got the job done. The employee admitted to knowing of another place that sold biopsy needles, but concluded that they were of inferior quality.
Free health care is offered by all state-owned hospitals and clinics; but the UHWI, though funded by taxpayers' dollars, is not one of them. The teaching hospital is neither private nor public and its patients have to pay for the health-care services offered by the hospital.
Gaynor told our news team that she was not particularly bothered by the purchase-your-own-needle policy because she was more concerned about the legions in her breast that could be cancerous.
"I never really thought of it as strange because I thought of it as the standard procedure. The scary thought was that they found the legions," she said. Gaynor has not yet purchased the needles because she cannot yet afford them.
Dr Derria Cornwall, head of the hospital's mammography unit, was reportedly unavailable to speak with our news team.
Name changed to protect identity.