TT in uphill battle against cancer

“People are spending a lot of money on using things that they think prevent cancer but that does not prevent cancer,” Dr Ahamad, who was once with the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health cancer initiatives, noted. “There are things people can do that would reduce their risk by up to 30 or 40 percent that are not being done. So prevention has to be a main priority at this point. People sitting hours and hours in traffic is cancer causing.” Prevention was a major way in which the country could look at combating cancer, Dr Ahamad said prescribing lifestyle changes such as dietary, rigid tobacco control and regulations, increased physical activity, attempts at keeping one’s ideal body mass index were among the ways to aid in the fight against cancer. She observed that people were not understanding simple things that could prevent cancer, like nutrition and not being overweight, and easy access to physical activity which she said in TT is difficult.

“You cannot ride your bicycle on the road,” she pointed out. “You cannot go for a walk after work because it is dangerous. The country is now facing a shortage of financial resources and in a way we will look at going backwards. We don’t have the resources to give the things promised then. One such item still awaiting delivery is the National Oncology Centre which has been in the making for the past ten years.

This centre for which there was a sod turning ceremony in 2007 was envisioned by the then Prime Minister, the late Patrick Manning, was promised in 2004. More than ten years and three successive governments have passed since its promise and the facility is yet to be opened. How far along and when it would be completed Newsday was still waiting on answers from UDECOTT on those issues.

Dr Ahamad, who was a part of the planning for the Centre, said the money spent on the project so far has been wasted.

Interviewed yesterday, she said, “The reality is that the whole thing is a very expensive project and a significant amount of money has already been spent on the project.

The country has not gotten value for their money at all” Ahamad remembered that the centre was supposed to act as the central hub for continued care and would provide oncology services in the region. She said the good thing was that some of the the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) here went ahead with the development of oncology stations in their respective areas, noting that there were centres in San Fernando, Sangre Grande and Tobago.

Treating cancer in Trinidad and Tobago remains a challenge in the country as a consequence of inadequate equipment and staff among other difficulties, Dr Ahamad said.

“The lifestyle is very cancer causing,” she said. “Throughout the world cancer is increasing.

Cancer is a challenge to treat anywhere in the world because it needs a lot of people. You have an inadequate amount of staff and equipment devoted to oncology and we have inadequate amount of preventative measures in oncology.

We (in Trinidad and Tobago) have inadequate research and inadequate planning. The National Oncology Centre would have served as Grand Central Station and focal point for that. Because there is no real one focus centre where all the energy and the space...then you basically have it left up to each regional authority which may or may not have oncology trained staff. It is basically unstructured.” “We don’t even have a base for people (with the expertise) trying to help or come back, and the National Oncology Centre was going to be that base,” she said.

Even the equipment in the private sector, Dr Ahamad said she would consider obsolete at this point compared to what is currently being done in oncology. She also a lot of ‘burn-out’ among the people currently strong enough to continue to stay and when they are burnt out they do not truly care to continue to work at that point.

“I think it is a huge set back,” she said. She added that with the country’s financial situation, there were fears it might go backward in the fight against cancer. There have been improvements, Ahamad concedes, the country needed to be cautious about the lack of resources as seen in countries like Nigeria, which she noted, has gone backwards.

She said some of the country’s oncologists are retired or retiring, some have moved away, the lack of staff and equipment and the regulations to ensure there is good quality care.

She said the people charged with obtaining the resources are, themselves, not qualified to understand when the resource presents itself to them. She said while in TT a couple of well trained oncologists were trying to get into the system but the government human resource personnel, “did not understand their value.”