THE number of cancer patients at the Southern Philippines Medical Center-Adult Cancer Center (SPMC-ACC) rose to 14,909 for the year 2022 compared to 2021 with only 10,439.
Data provided by the SPMC-Medical Oncology, out of all the 14,909 patients, 746 are in-patients, 7,375 are outpatient, 2,673 are in teleconsult, and 914 are newly diagnosed, and 3,201 are using the infusion unit.
In an interview with a Fellow of the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology (PSMO), Dr. Amherstia B. Morelos stated that the significant increase in the number of cancer patients can be attributed to the public being more open to going to the hospitals for a checkup and to seek medical attention in healthcare institutions for extensive laboratory tests and biopsies.
She also acknowledged that the hospital’s diagnostics are improving, thus the detection rate is now much higher.
At present, the SPMC-ACC is catering to more or less 600 in-patients, outpatients, teleconsult patients, new cases, and those in the infusion unit every month. Most of them are from Southern Mindanao like Cotabato and General Santos City.
Data also shows that an estimated 7,200 patients are being treated at the ACC yearly.
“Well honestly, we cannot tell talaga kung if it’s from the environment or from the food that we eat. We cannot, there’s no way of knowing it but if ever yun nga more or less increasing yung detection rate natin compared of course 30 years ago (Well honestly, we cannot tell if it’s from the environment or from the food that we eat, we cannot, there’s no way of knowing it but more or less our detection rate is increasing compared to 30 years ago),” Dr. Morelos said.
Unlike in the 2021 and 2022 data, the number of cancer patients that SPMC-ACC was catering to in 2020 was only 7,251 wherein 549 were inpatients, 3,219 were outpatients, 804 for teleconsult, 404 were new cases, and 2,275 in infusion unit.
In 2021, there were 10,439 of which 527 were inpatients, 4,103 were outpatients, 2,665 were catered via teleconsultation, 431 were new cases, and 2,713 at the infusion unit.
The significant difference between the number of patients in 2020 and 2021 compared to year 2022 can be attributed to the fear of people coming to hospitals because the years 2020 and 2021 were the height of the pandemic and patients were afraid to go to hospitals for fear of getting in contact with people infected with Covid-19. Aside from that, patients were also limited especially in logistics since most of them were not allowed to go out due to health restrictions hence, they are only encouraged to undergo teleconsultation.
For those seeking help, Dr. Morelos said that the Department of Health (DOH) under the National Integrated Cancer Control Act features two significant programs: first, the Cancer and Supportive-Palliative Medicines Access Program (CSPMAP), and the Cancer Assistance Fund (CAF).
The CSPMAP offers free medication to cancer patients while the CAF assists with services such as diagnostics, therapeutic procedures, treatment, and cancer medicines. (RGP)