Barbadians who are unable to pay for private medical care
need not worry about their health being compromised at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).
General surgeon Ian Lewis gave that assurance before a packed audience at Queen’s College, on Wednesday night, as he delivered the keynote address on the topic Breast Cancer – Where We Are And The Future.
“Persons have to know what they can afford. The quality of service does not vary whether you go public or private . . . you are going to get what you need, and patients with insurance – most of them are going to choose private care because they will get direct one on one care.
“If people are going to be referred into the QEH, the care is not going to be compromised. They are still going to get very good care,” he said.
Lewis made that response after a member of the audience, in the question and answer segment, queried whether poor Barbadians who were diagnosed with breast cancer and unable to pay for private care would be disadvantaged.
Before an audience that included Judge Marva Clarke and past president of Cancer Support Services (CSS), Jan Lynton, Lewis said the time had come for the establishment of a specialty unit where women can access mammograms, histologies, cytologies, and the diagnosis can be given in quick time.
“It happens in the bigger countries and it can happen here as well,” he said.
Lewis made it clear that in the vast majority of women in Barbados who suffer with breast cancer there was no genetic link.
(MK)
