Taiwan Medical Mission Supports Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital

A medical mission from the Republic of China Taiwan is in Belize this week, supporting doctors at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. The mission is in Belize through a collaboration with Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, where doctors visit the KHMH for capacity building and additional support. The mission is in Belize assisting with Oncology (Cancers), Ophthalmology (diseases of the eyes), and Nephrology (kidney diseases). Dr. Jerry Teng, an Oncologist who is a part of the mission, spoke on the work he is doing with the KHMH and some of the challenges he has identified working with the unit.

Dr.Jerry Teng, Oncologist, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital: “And I believe the international collaboration and the knowledge exchange is our best weapons to conquer cancer. I come here to see the general oncology unit and I want to give my experience here so I hope it can advance our oncology management here. For example I see how doctors here evaluate cancer patients at the out patient department and also refer the patient to go to receive a CT SCAN and the CT Scan report comes back here and doctors evaluate the report and give the patient about any treatment suggestions. I see any improvement about this unit flow. I’m quite impressed when I came here and in this hospital there is only one oncologist and basically he established many standard protocols from zero to current. I see there are fifteen to twenty chemotherapy protocols, I think that is well established. I think Dr.Yacab has done very well. What we need more maybe for example the space if we can do the twenty hour infusion then we need to have more admission spaces. Or when we refer a patient to the home hospice we may need a specialist covering the home hospice. In Taiwan the field belongs to the family doctors.”

Dr. Ramon Yacab, head of the oncology unit at the KHMH said that the support from the mission will help in advancing the level of care offered to patients being treated at the KHMH. Yacab said that the unit has seen a drastic increase in the number of cancer patients, which places greater importance on quality service delivery. He also pleaded with Belizeans to ensure that they get screened as early detection of cancers increases a patient’s chance of survival.

Dr.Ramon Yaccab, Oncologist, KHMH: “During the week what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna be working along with patients, we’re going be reviewing cases, discuss one on one any type of cancer with Dr.Jerry. We’re reviewing gynecological cancers, prostate cancers, hematological cancers but we’re also discussing complex cases and also reviewing what we’re doing the protocols that we have in place and see if there’s room for improvement and how we can improve the services and also determining what our challenges are because challenges we have many especially when it comes to resources and the services that the patients need. What we do is we’re doing as a hospital we’re providing service to a population around 300 to 400 patients per year now every month we’re having around 20 to 30 new cases of cancer with breast cancer being the most frequent type of cancer. So it’s determining how we can move forward and strengthening what we have and improving the care that we’re offering. The first thing is for all the ladies and also men always remember to do your self examination, women do your self examination get to know your bodies. If you notice something abnormal don’t feel, there’s always going to be a component of fear but visit your medical doctor, come to the clinic, come for evaluation we can do a lot and we want you to know that you’re not alone in this. We’re here to help the patients. Important too is screening, screen, screen and screen we cannot overemphasize the need for women to be doing their screening mamograms and it is a available in the Belize City area through the NHI program it’s also available at the private institutions. Unfortunately we don’t have memogam services here at the KHMH but it is available for all the women all over the country. Remember if you don’t have mamograms readily available especially for the Toledo, Stann Creek and Corozal districts where there is no visit your doctors, have a clinical self exam, examine yourself, go to your doctors if there is any reason for worry. For the rest of the districts they have mamograms.”

The Oncology Unit was officially opened at the KHMH in August 2021; however, the work to establish the unit began back in 2018.