Free mammograms now available for eligible polyclinic patients

Patients at polyclinics across Barbados who are unable to afford breast screening will now have access to free mammograms, thanks to donations made to the Barbados Cancer Society’s Breast Screening Programme.

Medical Coordinator of the Programme, Dr Shirley Hanoman-Jhagroo, announced the initiative following Sunday’s CIBC Walk for the Cure at Warrens. She also revealed new improvements to cancer care services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).

Dr Hanoman-Jhagroo said the programme was launched in response to growing concern that financial barriers were preventing many women from accessing vital breast screening services.

“You know, there’s no free mammograms on the island,” she said. “And that always bugs me because those patients are not coming and they feel that ‘I can’t go to the Cancer Society for it’. So they’re sitting in the polyclinic and the sisters there would refer them, but they don’t come.”

She revealed that the programme decided to act after discussions with health officials.

“When I discovered that talking to the sisters, I said, well, we need to do something about that because this health care should be affordable for everyone,” Dr Hanoman-Jhagroo explained.

She said that through recent donations, the programme has been able to provide free mammograms to patients from ten polyclinics across the island, effective Monday.

“We’ve been able, from donations recently, to be able to afford free mammograms for the polyclinic patients,” she stated. “I got a donation from a survivor the other day for 100 mammograms, which have been divided between ten polyclinics. Each polyclinic will have ten as of tomorrow (Monday).”

The nurses in charge at each facility will assess patients who are unable to pay and allow them to access the free service.

“The nurses in charge will assess the patients who cannot go and let them have it,” Dr Hanoman-Jhagroo said. “So we’re hoping that that will continue, so almost everybody will be able to have a mammogram.”

The longtime cancer awareness survivor and advocate also announced new assistance for the Oncology Department at the QEH, which she said has been struggling with limited capacity to treat patients.

“The oncology clinic at QEH can only do six patients a day,” Dr Hanoman-Jhagroo said. “We’ve just donated three more chairs, so they’ll be able to do nine a day, and at the end of this month, we’ll get four more chairs donated because they need recliners.”

She added that the hospital has been supportive of the effort to expand treatment capacity.

“The hospital has been very generous to give us [space] on the private ward,” she said.

She added that with the additional chairs, the clinic will soon be able to treat up to 14 patients per day, significantly cutting the waiting list for chemotherapy.

“We’ll be able to do about 13 or 14 patients a day, bringing the waiting list down from two and a half months to about two weeks,” she said. “Which will make a difference to the patients waiting, because if you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and you’re sitting around waiting three months for treatment, can you imagine?” (LG)