The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng says Uganda is looking forward to exploring and adopting a cancer screening method at the community level which she says will prevent incidences of late diagnosis of the disease.
This in her remarks on the sidelines of the 5th Annual Ministerial Meeting of the Group of Friends of Universal Health Coverage and Global Health ongoing in New York City on the sidelines of UN General Assembly.
“This community concept is run in such a way that there is a screening tool and you begin with it from the communities and diagnosis and confirmation is made at the lower-level units. This will require that a country like Uganda sets up diagnostic laboratories at the lower facilities so that diagnosis and treatment can be done within the communities and one does not necessarily have to move to the tertiary level.”
“Because if cancer is detected early, then the treatment protocols will not be so complicated for the communities. And in our case, the regional referral hospitals would do a good job.
The meeting has also discussed the importance of having very clear digital data according to Dr. Aceng.
“We also discussed the importance of having very clear digital data so that we are able to track the patients and track their prognosis as well.”
The discussion in its entirety focused on a planned introduction of a concept of Community Management of Non-Communicable Diseases like Cancer, hypertension and Diabetes.
This development will see improvement in early detection of cancer and other NCDs for better management at the community level.