05 Feb 2023

There is urgent need to plug gaps that exist in the health system with regard to cancer care in order to afford cancer patients holistic care and support.

Ms Gaserekwe Ramosesane from the Botswana Retired Nurses Society said this on Saturday at a World Cancer Day commemoration in Serowe, where she appealed to stakeholders to partner and ensure that wholesome cancer care became a reality.

“Care doesn’t only mean provision of treatment.

It includes access to information that can come through cancer awareness activities; timely screening, timely treatment and access to support services,” she said.

Another area that Botswana was still lagging behind in, Ms Ramosesane said, was with regard  to the provision of palliative care.

She noted that since comfort was critical to cancer patients, it was sad that there was limited access to palliative care services including pain relief.

She observed further that shortage of specialists in the oncology field was another area of concern that continued to rob cancer patients of the opportunity to receive timely and appropriate care.

“There is shortage of specialists in the oncology or cancer field, both nurses and doctors.

This makes it difficult to access care, leading to few survivals.

This is an area that is critical and needs urgent action,” she noted.

Despite the challenges, she commended the Ministry of Health for the initiatives in place to close some of the existing cancer care gaps.

She mentioned the vaccination of girls for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) to eradicate cervical cancer and availability of pap smear testing across the country among those for which the ministry deserved commendation.

Ms Ramosesane said the emergence of cancer support groups was also a commendable development that would help greatly, especially in the area of raising public awareness on the disease.

Giving an overview of cancer prevalence in the Serowe District Health Management Team’s area of coverage, community home-based care (CHBC) coordinator, Ms Kago Malaakgosi said out of a total of 349 home-based patients in the area, 15 were battling with cancer.

She noted that among the services that they offered their clients was provision of psychosocial support in the form of counselling, explaining that medical care alone was not adequate to help patients wade through their ordeal.

Sharing their cancer diagnosis and treatment journeys, survivors Ms Tsholofelo Noke and Ms Lillian Keaitse emphasised the importance of early detection and diagnosis as a critical and central determinant of how well the patient could fare in battling the disease.

Ms Noke, who was diagnosed with Stage 2 cervical cancer in 2017, attributed the success of her battle against cancer to having been diagnosed early.

Diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2018, Ms Keaitse said early diagnosis and efforts by the healthcare system to ensure the survival of cancer patients had saved her life.

“When my breast suddenly started excreting some fluid in 2017, I immediately sought medical help and a year later, a biopsy confirmed my diagnosis.

I underwent treatment, which started with the removal of the breast, and I am glad to have lived to tell my story,” she said, imploring the public members to understand that a cancer diagnosis did not have to mark the end of a patient’s life.

Ms Gagoope Lazarus, who lost her 11-year-old son to leukaemia in early 2020 said despite the soul-wrenching nature of the cancer diagnosis and treatment journey, the healthcare system was doing fairly well in caring for patients and supporting their caretakers.

She said health workers went out of their way to make the journey bearable for cancer patients and their families.

From the Cancer Association of Botswana (CAB), Ms Motlagoman Gare appealed to cancer patients, survivors and caretakers not to despair, but to make full use of the available support systems in their journey to beat the disease.

The commemoration was organised by Serowe cancer support group and CAB under the theme; Close the Care Gap. ENDS