Relief for cancer patients

The ministry, yesterday, announced that the first shipment of drugs would arrive during the first week of September for immediate distribution, adding that a further shipment of medication would arrive during the second half of September.

However, a source yesterday informed Newsday that some of the medication was already in the country with more to arrive within the coming week.

The much needed medications were procured by the National Insurance Property Development Company Limited (Nipdec).

One of the major drugs that was unavailable was morphine which is used to help ease the pain of end stage cancer patients.

Deyalsingh had explained that this country had only one registered source for morphine, which was the United Kingdom. He said the ministry was now trying to source a second manufacturer, also from the UK, which was one one of very few countries that produced the drug for export.

There has also been a shortage of chemotherapy drugs which could cause a patient tens of thousands of dollars to import, if they wanted to live.

The source said this would take a longer time to reach the country since it was being imported from India.

The procurement of the shipments of drugs has been facilitated by the emergency funding which Cabinet approved on July 14, 2016.

However, the source said there was no indication as to how many months supply of drugs had been ordered, or how long the supply would last.