The Government is promising that the Cancer Centre Eastern Caribbean Ltd. – which is expected to shut its doors at the end of April, according to its owner – will not be closed.
Reports say that Dr. Conville S. Browne, who reportedly owns 75 to 80 percent of the shares in the centre, wrote to Prime Minister Gaston Browne and Health Minister Sir Molwyn Joseph, in March, regarding its imminent closure.
In the letter, Dr. Browne reportedly says he has been supporting the centre these past years; however, it has become increasingly difficult to continue clinical operations due to its finances.
Therefore, he reportedly writes, treatment for cancer patients will end on April 30, and other arrangements will have to be made for them. Accordingly, no new patients are being accepted for treatment, especially if their care will have to run past the end of that month.
The majority shareholder reportedly has not been successful in getting other partners to come on board, nor in finding a new owner who will keep the facility open.
Minister Joseph, who addressed the weeks-long rumours of a shut-down in the Lower House, on April 17, says plans are in the pipeline to sell the facility for US$15 million. However, if it has not been sold by April 30, the centre will likely go into liquidation.
The closure of the centre has stirred criticism of the Browne Administration, with cancer patients expressing insecurity about their future care.
Their anxiety is well founded, since Sir Molwyn says that a follow-up letter from Henry Hazel, chief operations officer at the centre, advises that patients undergoing radiation therapy should make alternative arrangements to continue treatment.
In this regard, Sir Molwyn claims that arrangements will be made to have these persons flown overseas for treatment.
In what several residents tell REAL News was a “shocking” disclosure, Joseph says the first conversation anticipating the close-down of the centre took place over a year ago.
Yet, he says that unnecessary alarm has been injected into the community about its closure – even by opposition parliamentarians.
Joseph says that some of the statements suggesting that the Government has abandoned cancer patients are false and malicious. And he says there is no evidence that the Administration has not continued to use its financial resources to send such patients overseas for care.
At present, he adds, six approved patients are expected to continue their treatment, which will be administered in The Bahamas. Another two are expected to be sent abroad for care: One is awaiting a passport and the other is scheduled to travel to Suriname, he says.
Sir Molwyn claims the Government has already expended $9 million in support of the Cancer Centre to ensure that every Antiguan and Barbudan can receive treatment, and he is certain the centre will not be allowed to close.
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Does MSJMC have an oncology department separate from the cancer centre?
What treatment options are available in Antigua separate from the cancer centre?
Or does everything have to be treated overseas?
That place is awful, and it would not matter if they had an oncology department it would run the same as the rest of the facility. SIR Molwyn is a total failure and a waste. He should resign immediately. He is not up to the task. I predict this failure and more to come if this man is not removed and RETRIED. ASAP!!!!!
Very good question Stay Alert. Yes we do have an Oncology department and as far as I know that is Where most of the cancer patients attends to include two family members of mine and a friend – in fact my mother-in-law went there for her Kemo treatment and has been in remission for several year and doing very well in her daily life . I know of several success stories from the SLBMSJH. With that said is it the radiology that we do not have at our oncology department.
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joseph needs to resign. The entire medical system is in shambles.
Sir Molwyn,
Wouldn’t this be the time to start recognizing and assisting our naturopathic doctors who have been “healing” persons for decades? I know we cannot just take someone with stage 4 cancer and put them on herbs and expect miracles (outside of God’s intervention) but there are cases where the cancer is not as progressed or where natural medicine can supplement or speed the results of medical interventions. Let’s start giving people options.
Sending overseas means: checking your minister or some other politician; that is, no proper procedures are in place. This has always been the practice with A(B)LP and they would not be drawn away from it.
It is not that they don’t have examples to follow. The PetroCaribe Senior Citizens initiative simply ask that one proves that you have reached the age. Why can’t ABLP do the same?
They seem to be able to find all kinds of schemes to put our money into, the latest being a yacht that they cannot sell and now is going to cost some 30K weekly! Couldn’t this money go into the Cancer Centre? While they are doing that, they are failing to pick low hanging fruits. The Sunshine Hub Car Park languishes, which if completed could earn govt thousands of dollars a day!
This entire ABLP govt continues to be a joke.
Molwyn Joseph is incompetent and absolutely clueless. This man is like a curse on our healthcare systems. Clinics are in disrepair, closed, without adequate supplies and the list is endless under this man. The only honorable thing for him to do is take his half billion dollar vehicle and just disappear into the night where he belongs. Then again, the folks in his constituency made the colossal mistake of putting this man back and that to me is the real problem. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait 5 years to see the back of this man. Antigua just can not afford him for another five years.
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