We have reported on several international medical visits from a host of practitioners. A group of doctors and nurses would normally come for a couple days or sometimes a week and see a few patients. Then they head back home – medical mission over! Well, the Medical Director and his team at the Belize Cancer Center in Dangriga aren’t settling for a one-time visit. They have partnered with one of the most prestigious medical centers in the world – UCLA to launch a program where in any given month , there will be 3 medical professionals from UCLA stationed at the Cancer Center in Dangriga. It is major collaborative breakthrough and after about a year of planning, it's finally official. Today Courtney Weatherburne traveled to Dangriga to find out how this new partnership will work and what it means for Southerners and the wider population.
This might look like just another regular clinic with its comfy treatment area. Its storage supply area and its medicine refrigerator.
But the Belize Cancer Center is so much more for Dangriga residents. For 60 year old Cancer Survivor Marjorie Garvin, this center gave her another chance at life.
Marjorie Garvin - Cancer Survivor
"They are there for me because if they were not there for me, I don’t know what God would have done, because right here you can come and get your treatment, if you don’t have any money they help you with everything, they sent me to Honduras to get my next treatment."
Courtney Weatherburne
"They paid for you to go to Honduras to get treatment?"
Marjorie Garvin
"Yes they paid for me to go to Honduras. I took my treatment for 2 months, 2 weeks all under their expenses so thanks to them I am still alive."
And it’s not only cancer patients who benefit from the center. The doctors also test and provide treatment for sickle cell anemia.
Punta Gorda resident Rockel Romero has been bringing her 8 year old son Orlando for treatment for 3 years he was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia at 6 months and finding out about the center has given her more ease and hope during this challenging journey.
Rockel Romero - PG Resident
"It gave me a little, a better idea and less traveling, to travel all the way to Belize City and closer to home. With the treatment it has helped, it has helped him a lot."
According to the Centers Medical Director Dr. Elsworth Grant, all their health care services will be enhanced and others included through a new partnership with one of the leading hospitals in the world - the UCLA Medical Center.
Dr. Elsworth Grant - Medical Director, Belize Cancer Center Dangriga
"For us it is an amazing accomplishment to have somebody who will be here in the future and for the patience to have access to a physician all the time from a continuity of care I think it will allow us to provide better continuity of care than we are able to now. For the broader community I think bringing in internal medicine specialist as well as the capacity in the future to access additional specialists, rheumatologist and chronologist will just fill a gap that we don't have and people would never have access to. SoI think we will make a great big difference in the community with the programme such as this one."
The goal of this unique collaboration is to provide higher quality health care for those suffering from Chronic Diseases.
Dr. Soma Wali - Chair, Department of Medicine, Olive View UCLA Medical Center
"So based on the assessment I have done whether it's at the regional hospital or talking to physicians in the area, the nurses; like I said the major need is managing chronic diseases so that's the one area we're going to focus. To do that, to do the diagnosis early and to treat that early to prevent complications; somebody who has diabetes if we treat that early on here that person is not going to have kidney failure or lose their eyes or lose the feet so it's a lot of that management of chronic disease is going to be one of our main focus here but in addition to that one of the other need is lack of some specialties here. So what we were hoping to do also is to bring group of some specialists where the focus would be depending on the month, one month would be cardiology here, so we would be hoping to see everyone with heart disease or a group of pulmonologist will be here and then we'll focus on lung disease or rheumatologist, so it goes on."
The plan is to bring 3 different medical professionals from UCLA every month for 9 out of 12 months, 2 trainees and 1 specialist. Now this program is still in its initial stages but it is a great boost for health care in the South and it can be so for the rest of the country.
Dr. Elsworth Grant - Medical Director, Belize Cancer Center Dangriga
"I think it is, the start here in Dangriga really is the testing grounds for and success here will definitely lead to expansion and would make it easier if not UCLA for another university to come in and to replicate the mission but I see it more in order to do anything to expand you need to start first."
The Belize Cancer Center in Dangriga was opened in 2008. Since then the staff has treated about 1,000 patients and of course that number continues to grow. The doctors from the UCLA Medical Center are expected to arrive in Belize a couple months.
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