Urgent care: The wait for several tests for cancer takes up to six months in government hospital and not all hospitals have specific specialist. — KK SHAM/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Cancer is one of the major killer diseases in the world and the wait is long for treatment at government hospitals.
The long wait is attributed to the shortage of specialists and the limited number of public healthcare facilities offering oncology services.
“It does take a few months,” said National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) managing director Dr M. Murallitharan.
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“Sometimes getting an appointment for a CT scan takes 12–16 weeks in government (hospitals),” he added.
He said a CT scan, biopsy and immunohistochemistry tests are needed for a cancer diagnosis.
“The wait for these three tests can be up to four to six months in government hospitals,” he said.
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Hospital Sultan Ismail (Johor), Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun (Ipoh), Penang Hospital, Institut Kanser Negara (Kuala Lumpur), Sabah Women and Children Hospital, and Sarawak General Hospital are the cancer centres under the Health Ministry.
There are also university hospitals under the Higher Education Ministry that offer cancer treatment.
Dr Murallitharan said not all hospitals have a specific specialist.
“For example, for colorectal cancer, only certain hospitals will have that specialty,” he said.
“For instance, in Perak, you will have to send the patient to the Ipoh Hospital. That means all cases in Perak will have to be referred to the Ipoh Hospital.”
He said only two to three surgeries can be done in a day, adding that doctors may see 20 to 30 cancer cases a day.
“Operations are done only from Monday to Friday, and at government hospitals, it is not every day that a certain department will get an operations theatre.
“Maybe you will get one day a week or two days a week for colorectal (surgery). You can imagine the delay. All this is a system delay,” he added.
He said cancer surgeries require highly specialised specialists, which Malaysia lacks.
“80% of our patient load is in government facilities, and only 20% is in the private sector, but about 80% of our specialists are in private hospitals,” he added.
Dr Murallitharan said logistics are also another problem.
As most cancer treatment centres are in cities, it is particularly challenging for outstation patients who have to contend with the hardships and costs of commuting long distances.
NCSM has come up with initiatives to ease cancer patients’ burdens in seeking treatment.
The society offers diagnosis services which cut the wait time for patients and enable them to proceed to the next step, which is to seek treatment at hospitals.
The tests are also offered at a subsidised rate.
NCSM also provides lodging facilities near treatment centres for cancer patients who need a place to stay while undergoing treatment.
NCSM also operates shuttle services from their hostels to the hospitals. Dr Murallitharan said with these initiatives, MOH hospitals have been able to take in additional patients as the beds are provided by NCSM and the service is fully funded by society.
“Our focus area is on cities that have hospitals that treat cancer. The facility in Perak is running. In Penang, we are building a facility which will be completed in July or August,” he said.
“The Klang Valley facility has been operating for more than 30 years,” he added.
There were 103,507 cancer cases diagnosed between 2007 and 2011. The numbers, however, increased to 115,238 cases in the 2012–2016 period.
In April last year, then-health minister Khairy Jamaluddin reported that the number of new cancer diagnoses is expected to rise to over 66,000 annually by 2030, from 49,000 in 2020.
Cancer claimed 10 million lives worldwide in 2020 and 29,530 lives in Malaysia, according to the World Health Organisation’s Global Cancer Observatory.
Lung cancer was identified as the most common cause of death in 2020 worldwide, with 1.8 million fatalities, followed by colon and rectum (916,000 deaths), liver (830,000 deaths), stomach (769,000 deaths), and breast (685,000 deaths).
The data also revealed that in Malaysia, lung cancer accounted for the highest number of deaths with 4,509 fatalities, followed by breast cancer (3,503), colon (2,035), liver (2,050) and leukaemia (1,481).
