The COVID-19 pandemic is having a negative effect on people with cancer.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Health Dr Sonia Browne, who has responsibility for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), said there were cases where some people’s cancers had raged out of control due to fear of contracting COVID-19.
“We have to be reminded there are diseases impacted by COVID in many ways, not just in terms of illness but also neglect by both patients as well as the health care service. A lot of people have actually put off treatment for cancers for fear of contracting COVID in our polyclinics or in the doctor’s offices, so we have found a lot of people coming in with end-stage cancers,” she said.
Browne was speaking yesterday after a donation of bed tables, air flow mattresses, chairs and more to the hospital by Cancer Support Services in Dayrells Road, St Michael.
The QEH’s Director of Nursing Services Henderson Pinder said Barbados continued to record ever increasing cases of cancer throughout the pandemic. (CA)
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