The Acting Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong says every time we discuss breast cancer, everybody asks where is the equipment but the key to curing breast cancer is early diagnosis and treatment.
Speaking at a Pinktober Awareness event at the CWM Auditorium today, Fong says the key is not the high-end stuff.
Doctor Fong says they can bring the high-end stuff, set up a radiotherapy centre any day but the problem is we do not have the people who will access the service and live longer.
He says people are not coming in early.
Doctor Fong stresses that the most important component of our management against cancer is our engagement in the public health sphere.
He told CWM staff today that it is about their ability to identify those at risk, actively screen those at risk and their ability to pick out those who are positive in the community and follow them through to every single point until they get cured.
Doctor Fong says it is only then can they bring in the high-end stuff.
He says the problem as he sees it at the moment is many of them have not been able to engage in public awareness and public health in a more innovative way.
Doctor Fong says right now they go into forums, talk about engaging, throw a few articles out in the news and finish and then the same the next year.
He says the infrastructure is no longer the centre of health care provision, it is the human beings who go out and provide the service.
He says another topic that no one likes to talk about is end of life care.
Doctor Fong says everybody dies but no one prepares for it.
He says death is inevitable and yet they have no formal program to prepare anybody for death.
Doctor Fong says unfortunately with cancer, many people not only die from cancer but also lose their dignity along the way.
He says they have to start thinking of how they can sort out a way where if they can't cure, they will give dignity and quality of care.
From January 2019 to August 2020, there were 187 breast cancer cases recorded in Fiji.
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