The need for speciality healthcare for cancer patients in the country is urgent today more than ever, owing to the rising number and fatalities associated with it.

To achieve this, National Cancer Institute chairperson, Dr. Timothy Olweny said at the weekend there is a need to streamline the healthcare referral system so that there can be availability of the healthcare workers taking care of the patients that are in need of special care.

This, he said at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, is opposed to having healthcare workers taking care of a wide range of patients, which they don’t have the expertise for.

“This is because it would be very difficult to have sufficient human resources in all fields, and not just in palliative care and hence it’s about employing some creativity in terms of being able to deploy those resources,” he said during the World Hospices and Palliative Care Day.

October, also known as the ‘Pink October’ as people around the world adopt the pink colour and display a pink ribbon, is a period during which people raise awareness about breast health.

In the past according to Dr Olweny, it was about HIV care, and cancer, but lately in situations where cure is not possible, debilitating, chronic, and long-term and falls within the realm of palliative care, then it’s important to have a pool of specialised healthcare workers.

“It is important therefore, to optimize the use of resources, so as to leverage on technology to be able to make sure that even lower level health workers can be able to get assistance, for example through telemedicine and then enable the patients to access speciality care,” he said.

Currently, according to the Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association (KHPCA), there are only 106 facilities across the country providing palliative care directly to patients and families who are faced by hard-to-cure diseases.

This also would include any condition that is not curable.