AS World Cancer Day approaches, on Saturday, February 4, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) is seeking to launch a patient-led Caribbean Cancer Advocacy Agenda in celebration of the day.
As such, the HCC is requesting feedback on the draft agenda, especially from those with direct and indirect experiences with cancer.
The draft Caribbean Cancer Survivors Advocacy Agenda focuses on four core areas – Prevention, Early Detection, Diagnosis and Treatment, and Palliative Care.
Under the banner of Prevention, great focus is to be placed on programme development, to facilitate the development of community-based programmes, which increase awareness of the lifestyle measures that prevent cancer.
In the area of Early Detection, emphasis is being placed on collaboration among non-governmental organisations, to strengthen the capacity of NGOs to provide screening and support services through minimisation of duplication of effort through the pooling of resources.
Under the banner of Diagnosis and Treatment, great focus will be placed on areas such as: Access to Treatment Medication – to encourage the governments of Caribbean countries to address insufficient and erratic supplies of treatment medications; on Standards of Care – to improve the ability of Health Professionals to diagnose and monitor patients by improving the laboratory and medical imagining infrastructure available in the region; on Resource Allocation and Management – to encourage policy-level reflection and strategic planning regarding the level of finance and the human resources needed to achieve comprehensive cancer care, including long-term management structure in both governmental and NGO sectors; and on Accountability – to facilitate the development of an environment of accountability regarding health system errors that contribute to negative patient outcomes.
Focus will also be placed on having Regional Reciprocal Arrangements, to encourage Caribbean governments to re-eval-uate and/or normalise reciprocal agreements regarding inter-island health care that is of an urgent and/or essential nature for persons with a diagnosis of cancer. Focus will also be placed on having Information – to encourage the development of a regional atlas of cancer care services as a means of facilitating co-ordination, and continuity of care.
Under the final core area of Palliative Care, the focus will be on Access to Pain Medication – to encourage Caribbean countries to address insufficient and erratic supplies of opiates, including legislative changes to the categories of health professionals who are able to administer this class of drug. Also on Education – to increase awareness and competencies related to the safe and rational prescribing of opiates among health professionals in the region.
Interested persons who want a say on the draft agenda, can contact the HCC at hcc@healthycaribbean.org by Wednesday, February 1, 2017. (RSM)
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