Salome Meyer, Spokesperson of the Cancer Alliance Salome Meyer, Spokesperson of the cancer Alliance

Cancer Alliance, the advocacy collective for South Africa’s leading cancer organisation, has welcomed the publication of the Health Systems Trust’s review on Strengthening Cancer Services in South Africa

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“The Cancer Alliance has been highlighting gaps in our health system and advocating for equitable cancer care. Failures in the system are costing the lives of cancer patients, and we welcome the additional information that this comprehensive new report provides,” says Salomé Meyer, Director of the Cancer Alliance.

The report underscores Cancer Alliance’s  Cost of Cancer Report published in 2021, linked to the Percept Report it commissioned which estimated a R50bn per annum increase in the cost of cancer treatment by 2030, in the public sector alone, if South Africa does not develop and implement a national cancer plan.

“Cancer risks becoming the new HIV,” says Mark Heywood, Board member of the Cancer Alliance, “Oncology medicines are excessively priced. Care is unavailable or unaffordable for most people. There is stigma and fear. It will require an integrated approach to manage the growing threat the country is facing. We cannot face another era of denialism”.

The Cancer Alliance has called for the establishment of a National Cancer Institute (NCI) that will focus on five key elements: 

  1. Co-producing a definitive National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP), inclusive of monitoring and evaluation according to international policy development norms
  2. Establishing data collection and surveillance systems to inform cancer prevention and care planning, control, and budgeting.
  3. Exploring and co-creating key research questions and initiatives that are locally relevant and inform cancer prevention and control.
  4. Establishing standardised guidelines for all common cancers (adult and paediatric) in both the public and private sectors, incorporating appropriate referral pathways and ensuring equitable and affordable access to comprehensive care.
  5. Addressing staffing, training and education needs to ensure South Africa has appropriately skilled health care professionals to comprehensively address cancer care and management.

The government says that the focus on the NHI for the next five years will be on strengthening primary health care services. In this context, the Health Systems Review highlights the importance of cancer prevention and early detection.

“We are looking forward discussing these options at the stakeholder meeting organised by the National Department of Health in mid- October,” Meyer says.

About the Cancer Alliance:

The Cancer Alliance is a collective group of cancer control non-profit organisations and cancer advocates brought together under a common mandate, to provide a platform of collaboration for cancer civil society to speak with one voice and be a powerful tool to affect change for all South African adults and children affected by cancer.

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