#KZNOncologyCrisis: Cancer patients must wait until March 2018 for first appointment
23 November 2017
The DA has been informed via a professional source within Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital that, as of yesterday, bookings for the assessment and treatment of patients with Gastro-Intestinal tract related can only be made in March next year.
This spells disaster for patients who have recently had surgery for these cancers as well as for those with metastatic or spreading cancer. It also means that any person diagnosed by surgeons today, will only get an appointment to see an oncologist, if they are lucky, in about four to five months.
At that point they will still require further assessments before treatment.
Meanwhile, patients that are in hospital for palliative therapy will, in all probability, not live to see an oncologist while those who will require neoadjuvant - the administration of therapeutic agents before a main treatment - may become ineligible for curative treatment by the time they are scheduled to start treatment.