The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

CARIBBEAN medical history was made when a new cancer centre modelled off a Bahamian example opened in St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, on June 26.

The centre’s development was spearheaded by the late Dr Arthur Porter, who died just days after the opening, and Dr Conville Brown, and is based on the Cancer Centre model developed here in Nassau.

With this model, the burden of expensive, high-tech medical care such as radiation therapy, is shared by the private and government sectors, general public or user sector so that more people have access to care, irrespective of their ability to pay.

“In 2009, I was invited to address the CARICOM community on the role of the private sector in healthcare. During the presentation I mentioned that governments cannot shoulder the healthcare burden alone, and if governments are expected to do that there will be many deficiencies in our healthcare system,” Dr Brown told Tribune Health.

“A lot of the advances the governments would not be able to keep up with because they are more expensive and they are more high tech. For countries to advance you really need the private sector to step up to the plate and make a contribution. And more importantly the government must welcome the private sector initiatives to advance healthcare because they themselves cannot afford to do it alone.”

Former Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua was impressed by the model and invited Dr Brown to build the St John’s Cancer Centre to provide all of the services offered at its counterpart in the Bahamas.

A ceremony attended by Bahamian and Antigua government ministers, representatives of the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) member states, and sitting chairman of the CARICOM, Prime Minister Perry Christie, marked the official opening of the facility.

The state-of-the-art Cancer Centre of the Eastern Caribbean, as the facility is called, provides high-quality medical, radiation and surgical oncology services.

The centre currently will provide those services to St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Anguilla, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands in addition to Antigua and Barbuda.

Dr Brown noted that the adopted partnered care approach with the private sector will ensure that services at the facility are accessible to all in Antigua.

In 2004, the Cancer Centre of the Bahamas opened its doors for treatment of Bahamians with cancer, providing the only radiotherapy service in the country. For the last six years it has been accredited by the American College of Radiation Oncology. It is the only centre outside continental North America to hold this designation.

In 2012, the centre expanded its reach with the development of a monthly clinic in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

In November 2009, Dr Brown and Dr Porter signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Antigua and Barbuda to begin the feasibility studies to determine the need for a cancer centre in the eastern Caribbean region.

Dr Brown also presented the concept at the OECS 50th Heads of Government Meeting in Anguilla.