Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said plans are in the pipeline to expand cancer treatment and screening across the island.
Speaking from a critical meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said a technical team will be sent to Jamaica to assess how the country can expand cancer care, including the addition of new equipment and the possible establishment of a cancer treatment facility in central Jamaica.
Dr Tufton said the Government is also looking to expand other areas including cancer and breast cancer screening in particular, such as mammogram services, which was almost non-existent in the public healthcare sector.
He said the Ministry hopes to add screening services at another six or more hospitals, while exploring how these services can be provided at the primary level through more recently expanded health centres.
&ldquo;We want to see more than a doubling of capacity of both cancer treatment and cancer screening in the public system, and the IAEA would be helping us with that.&rdquo;
He said beyond that, there are discussions being had around training and capacity-building. &ldquo;The machines have to be managed by people and we are limited in that regard, so we are trying to work out a programme with them in conjunction with the University of the West Indies or any other institution for training more Jamaicans, or accessing better human resource capacity.&rdquo;
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Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said plans are in the pipeline to expand cancer treatment and screening across the island.

Plans Underway for Jamaica’s Cancer Care Expansion