Senator wants mass screening for cancer

INDEPENDENT Senator Dr Maria Dillon-Remy urged the Government to initiate a mass screening of the population for cancer, which she said was needlessly killing thousands of citizens each year who die from undetected colon, cervical, breast and prostate cancers.

She spoke in Thursday's budget debate in the Senate. Dillon-Remy asked aloud what was in place for the thorough screening of the ordinary person who turns up at a public health centre.

"Endless people are dying of breast cancer, cervical cancer and prostate cancer when they could have been saved by proper screening." she said. Each regional health authority (RHA) should have a plan to do mass screenings of residents in their zone, she urged. While a reduction in maternal mortality was to be celebrated, she said current successes had been built upon the work of previous ministers of health.

However, she alleged the former People's Partnership government had stymied efforts by their predecessors to initiate a cardiac catheterisation programme in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, despite huge sums having been spent on this heart health initiative. She said the result of not having that programme was that today, if someone doesn't have the money for private treatment, he/she will die. Dillon-Remy inquired as to the Government's plan to address a backlog of requests for non-urgent surgery, such as that on a slow-growing cancer tumour, after a build-up of cases during the lockdown periods of the covid19 pandemic. While admitting it was a worldwide problem, she said TT now needed a plan to deal with the backlog.

Dillon-Remy also called for the passage of an autonomy bill for Tobago, saying Parliament should not be debating every line item of expenditure for Tobago in budget documents, but rather, simply award the requisite sum and let representatives in Tobago debate the detailed allocations. Urging cheaper air flights, she suggested the Government revert to the Dash-8 aircraft which had previously dominated the inter-island air route, suggesting these were cheaper to operate than the aircraft currently used. Dillon-Remy wanted more action against crime, urging inputs from all quarters including parents, businesses and faith groups.

"Crime is out of control."

The senator called for efforts for dealing with crime at the root cause, "not just waiting for them to get bad and you build more prisons.

"She reflected that social decay did not happen overnight, but came in incremental steps. Reflecting on having to rebuild after hurricanes had hit her home, Tobago, she said now was as good a starting point as any to rebuild TT.