To mark World Cancer Day, the Charlotte Maxeke hospital in Johannesburg has reopened its breast health clinic after the facility burnt down in 2021.
To mark World Cancer Day, the Charlotte Maxeke hospital in Johannesburg has reopened its breast health clinic after the facility burnt down in 2021. One of its main aims is to enhance early detection.
Although breast cancer screening and treatment continued after the fire, the hospital grappled with a critical space shortage that limited consultation and the training of medical students.
“Due to major restrictions, breast cancer patients face long waiting times. Similarly, healthcare professionals struggle with shared consultation spaces and suboptimal treatment environments,” Charlotte Maxeke chief executive Gladys Bogoshi told the Mail & Guardian on the sidelines of Tuesday’s official opening of the clinic.
The hospital also caters for breast cancer patients from North West, a factor which added to the urgency of improving its facilities.
“Expanding the clinic is essential to meet the rising demand for services, early disease detection and to improve patient experiences,” Bogoshi said.
A limited number of public hospitals in South Africa treat breast cancer, including Charlotte Maxeke and Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
Overall, access to comprehensive breast cancer treatment within the public sector remains restricted due to limited resources and socio-economic inequality, according to the head of the breast health clinic Jenny Edge.
“Economic disparities do have a massive effect, and not just on treatment, but also on the access to diagnostic facilities,” Edge told the M&G.
Research conducted at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto found that the distance women had to travel for treatment contributed to late cancer diagnosis.
“Many women do not have access to screening mammography, especially those within the rural setting. This contributes to a delay in diagnosis and upstaging of disease,” the study said.
While mammography is the screening method of choice in developed countries, the research found that “South Africa currently lacks the resources to employ and sustain a national screening programme”.
The department of health stated that a national screening programme should only be introduced if at least 70% of the target population would benefit from it.
“Private sector funding helps us fill the gaps that we cannot fill with a lack of government funding,” Bogoshi said.
Disparity is revealed in the detection rate of breast cancer in South Africa where the private sector has a higher case-finding rate, owing to better access to screening for medical aid scheme members which translates to higher incidence rates of breast cancer in the private sector population (110.1 per 100 000 population in 2020) compared with the public sector (59.5 per 100 000 population in 2020).
Therefore, a comparatively high proportion of breast cancer is diagnosed among medical aid users who make up only around 15.7% of the total population, according to the South African Journal of Oncology.
Based on data from the 2022 National Cancer Registry, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women of all races, with a lifetime risk of 1 in 26 in South Africa.
In 2013, deaths from breast cancer and cancers of the female genital tract accounted for 0.7% and 1% of all deaths in South Africa, respectively.
The newly established clinic will provide comprehensive care to address breast health
issues. With a focus on early detection and accurate diagnosis, it aims to provide effective treatment, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes and quality of life.
“We are hoping that this facility can help address critical space shortages, and support training and development, consultations, and will contribute towards data collection for the National Cancer Registry, ensuring the delivery of real impact where it is needed most,” Edge said.
Charlotte Maxeke’s oncology department faces a considerable treatment backlog.
To mitigate this, Gauteng health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, who attended the opening of the clinic, said her department was working to open two additional radiation centres at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital.
“We have implemented a once-off outsourcing intervention to bring on board six private healthcare providers to assist in clearing the oncology backlog,” she said.
Charlotte Maxeke and Steve Biko Academic Hospital have the only radiation centres in the province.