KHMH Explores Partnerships for Improved Cancer Care in Belize

In response to rising numbers of cancer patients coming to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital’s Oncology Unit, the hospital authority is holding discussions with international partners on improving the quality of care. There is currently a visiting medical mission from Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in the Republic of China Taiwan working with the KHMH, along with Dr. Alonzo Walker, a Retired Professor of Surgery from the Medical College of Wisconsin, in the United States. Ramon Yacab, head of the Oncology Unit at the KHMH, said that since the unit was officially established in 2021, there have been between three hundred and four hundred patients a year, with more than thirty new cases a month. Yacab said that breast Cancer is the most common among those cases and that many patients are showing up in advanced stages. He spoke on the challenges the oncology unit is having and his hope of improvement from working with the medical mission.

Dr.Ramon Yacab, Head of Oncology, KHMH: “The unit has now two years in function, and with each month we’re seeing much more patients coming in. And I’m glad to see that, because I do believe that we have to strengthen what we have in country, so that we’re able to provide for our patients. And the demand is great. We’re still having challenges regarding medications. We’re still having challenges when it comes to access to radiation. There is no established agreements, no channels for patients who need radiation. And this is unfortunately where we see the social disparities that we have. If you’re poor, you know you’re not gonna go and the treatment will be incomplete and that increases the likelihood of cancer coming back. So it does have an impact. If we, as a country, if we work together, government, community, if we’re able to to ensure that patients have all the access they need we’d be going a long way. But for that, we need political will, we need political changes. An important part about community too is working along with NGOs. We work along with the Belize Hospice and Palliative Care Foundation here in the city because we know that over a third of our patients are coming in with stage four cancers. So those cancers will progress with time and we work along with hospice to ensure that the patient has quality of life. So for the patients we try to cure, we do the best we can. For the patients we can’t offer a cure, we can offer comfort care. And all of this that we’ve been seeing has, I’m glad that the mission is here because that means that we’re doing something good, that we’re getting noticed through the Embassy of Taiwan, I’m glad for Dr. Jerry, and it also brings in Dr. Walker, who is visiting from Wisconsin.”

Dr. Walker explained that he has 37 years of experience in the medical field and has done extensive work in relating to breast cancer. He said that screening is one of the major issues being discussed with the KHMH in hopes to eventually develop a screening center for early breast cancer detection. 

Data from the Ministry of Health and Wellness shows that over twelve hundred Belizeans died from various types of cancer between 2017 and 2021. There were 209 cancer-related deaths in 2017 and the number trended upward every year, landing at 272 in 2021.