Johannesburg - Health activists from the Cancer Alliance, Treatment Action Campaign and Section27 yesterday marched to Premier David Makhura’s office to handover a memorandum in which they express their frustration towards the cancer crisis in Gauteng.
Salome Meyer from the Cancer Alliance said the main purpose of the march was to draw the attention of the Gauteng Health Department’s (political and administrative) leadership towards the ongoing crisis in Radiation Oncology at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) in Parktown.
“Radiation Treatment at CMJAH has been in crisis for at least five years. Cancer incidence is on the increase nationally. Most patients in the public sector are diagnosed with late-stage disease that requires more complex treatments. The increase in the number of diagnosed cancer patients, however, does not come with an increase in the budget to accommodate new equipment and more appropriate health-care professionals,” said Meyer.
She added that the ideal was to treat patients within three months after diagnosis.
“More than six months after the April 2021 fire at CMJAH, the only public facility in the province that offers radiation oncology, no steps have been taken to improve public sector cancer treatment in the province. The fire exacerbated a pre-existing crisis in radiation oncology, a crisis which the provincial government has refused to acknowledge. Right now, the backlog of patients at CMJAH is untenable, and oncologists inform us of that,” she said.
Meyer said that since the recent fire at CMJAH and due to Covid-19, the Oncology service had been negatively affected and treatment for patients had been poor.
“The backlog at Charlotte Maxeke is a long list, more than 1 000 men are on the list awaiting potentially life-saving radiotherapy, while more than 500 patients await treatment for breast cancer. It is said that some patients are diagnosed with a recurrence of their breast cancer before they receive the radiotherapy, which could have potentially prevented the recurrence. This is just a few of the patients who are on the waiting list,” she said.
Gauteng Health MEC Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi accepted the memorandum and said the department had heard the demands and understood their content and background, and would ensure that they were indeed attended to in the manner described in the memorandum.
“I undertake to provide feedback by no later than Friday, December 10, to ensure the implementation of an integrated plan by February 4, 2022, which is also World Cancer Day,” said Mokgethi.
The Star