HERE’S one very good news: President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the Cancer Control Act, a measure that helps address one of society’s most challenging maladies – cancer. Among others, it presses for widespread cancer screening. Very sensible, really. Early detection is key to arresting cancer.
Well-organized and amply-funded cancer early detection campaigns among the most-at-risk segment of our population will be crucial to the successful implementation of the newly-approved Cancer Control Act.
Cognizant of the many budgeting priorities of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Budget and Management, the law gives these agencies the flexibility to determine how much funding is needed. But we are hopeful they will give fighting cancer high priority.
Cancer screening is most crucial. It is important for the National Cancer Center and Health department to campaign for cancer screening and early detection down to the barangay level where poverty is pervasive. As everyone knows, cancer treatment can be very expensive.
The country has been having great difficulty against cancer because of our failures at early detection through cancer screening and wide public awareness. And yes, many Filipinos simply shrug off health as a major concern – until it becomes a really major concern. But who can blame them? Lack of financial resources is the most common reason for this.
Universal health care is the other crucial factor to the successful implementation of the newly-approved Cancer Control Act. When Filipino families are assured that their medical tests and other basic health needs can be covered by PhilHealth, they will have much less hesitance in seeing their doctor.
We thus also implore the DOH and all the hospitals, both public and private, to make their medical facilities warm and welcoming to the public. Visiting hospitals usually makes people anxious and worried. A warm and welcoming environment will greatly ease this tension and entice more people to keep seeing their doctors.
Let us remember: health is wealth. No nation can progress if its citizens are sickly.
