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NewsDay

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More woes for cancer patients

News
The Bulawayo Island Hospice — a palliative care centre for cancer patients — has stopped, with immediate effect, enrolling additional cancer-treatment beneficiaries due to financial constraints. In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, Island Hospice administrator Anita Dick said the institution was meant to cater for, and effectively manage terminal illnesses, “but due to financial constraints, […]

The Bulawayo Island Hospice — a palliative care centre for cancer patients — has stopped, with immediate effect, enrolling additional cancer-treatment beneficiaries due to financial constraints.

In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, Island Hospice administrator Anita Dick said the institution was meant to cater for, and effectively manage terminal illnesses, “but due to financial constraints, the centre was failing to offer services hence the need to immediately stop enrolments”.

“With effect from 1 June, we stopped enrolling people for our palliative care unit. It was not what we wanted but because of perennial financial woes that seemed to outgrow us, we found ourselves stopping enrolment.”

Dick said the company was facing challenges in trying to reach out to communities in the outskirts of Bulawayo and mobilising funds to acquire cancer-related drugs as well as chemotherapy machinery which were vital in cancer treatment. “Since our cancer database was growing, we found it inevitable to immediately terminate any enrolments,” she said.

Dick said the company was also involved in sensitising health workers such as nurses on palliative care principles.

The centre in Bulawayo was established in 1981 to offer palliative homecare and support to cancer patients throughout the city.