Patients not getting chemo on timely basis

THE EDITOR: The doctors, nurses and other staff at the St James Cancer Centre are certainly among the best healthcare givers in the country. They are extremely polite, helpful, and they take care of each cancer patient as if a member of their own family.

I therefore express my gratitude to all of them and ask Almighty God to bestow His blessings upon them and their families.

However, for about three-four months now, many patients have not been receiving chemotherapy treatment on a timely basis. This is due to the machine that mixes the chemotherapy drugs being "down."

Some patients have not received chemotherapy for two-three consecutive sessions. Each session of chemotherapy is very important to treat with whatever cancer patients are battling with.

Many patients leave their homes and get to the centre very early in the morning, only to be told, after many hours, they will not be able to receive treatment and a new date is given to return. Sometimes when they return they are told the same thing and once more have to return to home without treatment.

Patients have been told that the Port of Spain General Hospital is assisting the centre by mixing and supplying a small amount of chemotherapy drugs, and therefore only a few patients can receive chemotherapy.

Most of the times the drugs arrive from the hospital in the afternoon, and by that time the patients selected to receive chemotherapy are hungry, exhausted and frustrated, and are administered their prescribed chemotherapy drugs late in the afternoon.

The doctors are also frustrated and one can see the painful expressions on their faces when they have to tell a patient who is in pain and sick that they will not be able to receive cancer treatment due to inadequate drugs.

It is said that several attempts were made to repair the machine without success. So, I am pleading with hard-working Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh to kindly get involved and render some urgent assistance so the machine can be in operation again soon.

LINDSAY WHEELER

via e-mail