New government must improve treatment of cancer patients

ONLY those who have lost a loved one to cancer know that Papua New Guinea is a long way away from providing effective and efficient treatment to cancer patients in the country.
Because of what’s not available in the country, families pool together whatever finance they have and through fundraising and donation, they send their loved ones overseas to receive treatment.
Every week, you will come across a fundraising notice advising that funds raised will go towards the cost of sending someone overseas for treatment.
And the cost they have to bear is not only the airfares, accommodation, medical bills and others, but also the follow-up care and treatment.
The after-care of a cancer patient who has received treatment can really take its toll not only on the family but also on the patient who sees the struggle his/her family are going through.
Cancer knows no boundaries and does not select who to attack. It can bring down one very fast when it attacks. While those who can afford overseas treatment go, spare a thought for cancer patients who do not have that luxury.
Life can be very unfair but that is reality here in PNG. And no, it’s not a bad dream.
Just stop and think about what they go through every day.
The ordeal of those who seek treatment in the country especially at the National Cancer Treatment Centre inside the Angau Hospital in Lae is something no one should be experiencing – if only those who were responsible to ensure there were specialists with equipment did their job right the first time.
The desperate cry by those currently at Angau is to be able to live another day and hope for a miracle to be told that the cobalt machine is working and it’s their turn today to receive treatment.
Many have passed away waiting for that dream to become a reality. Most who receive treatment overseas always shed tears thanking God for the extension and silently pray for a change in the health system. Only they know what another patient is missing out on.
Earlier this year, Deputy Health Secretary Dr Paison Dakulala told a Special Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Reform and Service Delivery and the Department of Health that there was no cancer radiation oncologist or cancer specialist available in the country to treat the increasing number of cancer patients.
Dakulala told the hearing that when PNG got the first cobalt machine into the country, it had taken almost 10 years to recruit the late oncologist Dr John Niblett.
During that time in the 1970s up to now, we haven’t been able to get a radiation oncologist and one could see how difficult it was to train one locally, Dakulala said.
Dr Niblett passed away on Tuesday without achieving the target to work with and train a local oncologist.
Oncology is a speciality where training cannot be done at the medical school here. It has to be done outside and is a difficult field to specialise in.
Dakulala emphasised that if someone wanted to become an oncologist, they have to get trained in an institution outside the country. Following that, one has to be trained to become a radiation oncologist. He also made it clear that it was quiet difficult to train and recruit oncologists.
The presentation from Dakulala was made in March, and whatever has transpired since is yet to be made public.
We only hope the new government must work with the Health department and improve on the treatment of cancer patients in the country.
The immediate thing to do now is to get the Angau cancer treatment facility in Lae running and a cancer specialist or radiation oncologist recruited.
This is urgent because as we read that people are dying from cancer out there and if we continue to ignore the problem, more lives will be lost.
Cancer does not discriminate who to attack next. The best and effective way to deal with it is to conduct extensive awareness on it so that people, especially women, are aware of what it is and how the preventative measures they must take.
On top of that, the government must deal promptly with the upgrading of cancer treatment facilities.
The citizens expect the government to do this as part of the health care policy it has been promoting heavily in the annual budget.