Cancer patients need attention

Letters

I FEEL sorry, sad and frustrated for the hundreds of cancer patients who would have benefited from radiotherapy in this country if the so-called advisers to Health and other ministers knew or did their jobs.
Someone should be held accountable for the five-year delay in providing radiotherapy from the cobalt-60 machine in Lae.
Cancers of the cervix, breast and mouth are the commonest cancers in PNG and these cancers would definitely need radiotherapy or radiation treatment as a treatment of choice. So what’s the justice in this?
As I have said before, the advice to the government that the country needed a radiation law or regulation before it can give radiation treatment should not have stopped the country from using radiotherapy or the cobalt-60 machine in Lae in the interim.
We have been using this machine in Lae since 1973 and the Government should have allowed it to operate or import the radioactive source long time ago as usual when we are waiting for this voluntary laws and regulations we have realised just by suddenly becoming a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
I am also not confident about how the Health Department and the Government decided that the custodian of these new laws and regulations would be the National Institute of Standards and Industrial Technology which does not have the technical capacity at the moment and struggling to perform any of its other mandated roles.
They should have set up a new agency under the Health Department such as the ones they have in the states in Australia or even an independent one such as the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency because it is not only about standards here that the Health Department advisers are confused about.
Radiation protection and safety is a big and risky business and should be handled professionally and appropriately.
It appears that institutions such as the National Institute of Standards and Industrial Technology would require more time to set up its structure in order to handle this new mandated role in radiation control and safety.
I call on the Health Minister to call for an independent inquiry into the whole Radiation Laws and Regulations saga which has taken this long .
Please explain why our people who need radiation treatment or radiotherapy have been denied treatment.
Why are they being denied treatment?
We already have the existing cobalt-60 machine in Lae all this time.

Peter Bire
Radiation Therapist

4 comments

  • Hope you get Health Secretary job and fix the problem.
    The mess at NAC seems ages ago.
    Unfortunately, most of the cancers are too late to be cured by radiotherapy when diagnosed. It may be useful for palliation but it is not worth the expense. Pain killers such as the various opioids should be utilised for palliation..
    Health department needs to improve its performance regarding prevention strategies. This is less costly and would save more lives.

  • Cancer treatment requires a system in place staffed by appropriately trained personal who can be able to deliver appropriate modalities of treatment based on the type, stages and complications of cancer.

    Unfortunately PNG does not have the system, no personal and expertise to deliver holistic treatment. It takes years of investments.

    I work in a country where cancer management is decided by a team called Multidisciplinary Team to decide on investigation, treatment.

    Radiation is just one aspect and only given to those with advanced cancer as a palliation and or curative with chemotherapy.

    PNG School of Medicine cannot be sen as providing graduates trained in this highly specialized field of medicine. Am dismayed by the Chief Medical Officer and his Health Secretary who helped to be Kindin and myself Physician collegues not getting the whole picture correct on many health issues including the Cancer threat.

    It is time to get new minds like Drs. Kindin Onguglo, Yakep Angue, Stanley Bart, with other local collegues who have administrative and Public Service knowledge to run the department of health

  • “19/08/30 Angau Cancer facility set to open in October (2019)- National
    THE Angau cancer facility will start operation by the end of October, Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Elias Kapavore says. He told Parliament yesterday that the regulations for the 2018 Radiation Safety Law, that was passed in Parliament, was being developed and would be presented to the National Executive Council in the next few weeks.
    “My ministry is working closely with Nisit (National Institute of Standards and Industrial Technology) and will provide the necessary support to ensure that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) required regulatory framework is in place so that Angau General Hospital can procure the required cobalt to perform radiotherapy services,” he said.”
    The irony of having to have special legislation for cobalt handling is PNG has been exporting cobalt for nine years from the Ramu Mine

    • Bro,
      All former Ministers for health have not been getting the right advice about cancer just like other diseases and that is the problem. I am speaking as a person who has worked in the cancer field in comprehensive oncology centres in Australia and Canada in the past. Most people think that when you buy a cobalt machine or linear accelerator machine then everything about cancer would be solved. In fact it requires more than that. The cobalt mined in PNG is different to the cobalt they use for medical uses and the food industry for sterilization. The cobalt used for radiotherapy is made in a nuclear reactor from a normal cobalt to become a radioactive so that it can be used for treatment. Therefore, it has to be made overseas usually in Canada, UK, Russia and now in China. The radioactive cobalt as they say is called cobalt-60 and is only 2 centimetres long. It is usually shipped in the sealed container for freight or shipment and then placed inside the what is called the head of the cobalt machine. Therefore, the cobalt machine and the “source” as they say are different things. PNG needs radiotherapy to treat most of its common cancers and can be delivered through a cobalt machine like the one in Lae or through the Linear accelerator machine which is being purchased by PMGH. It is true that most cancer treatment is PNG might be palliation only because of late presentations but that should not be an excuse to delay life saving treatment modalities like radiotherapy to be available. We must also be mindful that more than 50% of all cancers would need radiotherapy as well so by not having radiotherapy at all, the prognosis of cancer patients in PNG might be worse.

Comments are closed.