Dr Karen Cummings is so wrong

Dear Editor,

It is farthest from the truth that “Guyana is lagging in the Caribbean in terms of breast cancer survival, (despite its oil wealth).” This was the fulmination from Former Minister of Health, Dr Karen Cummings of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), who a few days ago “… raised concerns over Guyana’s breast cancer survival rate, highlighting a gap between the country’s rapidly growing wealth and the health outcomes of its citizens.”^[1]

First, I clearly understand this outburst, as this is her role; she is “more political than medical.” In fact, Dr Karen Cummings is not a “specialist” in hard-core medical practice/medicine, but her training is in “being a public health specialist and a primary care physician.” She truly lacks the expertise in any kind of specialized clinical branch of medicine, like oncology or cardiology.

Aside from being unsuited to make this assessment, she must be a bitter woman, as she did not succeed in her “attempted election rigging” when, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, she threatened to revoke the credentials of international election observers during the March 2020 general elections^[2].

Secondly, the mind is still fresh with her tenure when there were chronic medicine shortages across Guyana, and breast cancer staging and diagnostics remained heavily centralized. She did not touch that area. In fact, the entire public healthcare system relied on only a single mammography machine stationed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). And will we ever forget the horrible inefficiencies in supply chain management that led to localized stockouts of critical drugs and equipment across most public medical centers?

Honestly, I really find it unpalatable that many of her type, who bungled up when they were in charge, are now freely criticizing the ‘betterment’ that confronts them.

Editor, apart from her proven ineptitude and immoral stance on elections, hard facts show that Guyana is not lagging in breast cancer survival. Obviously, the ‘politician’ did not take time to observe and compare. Hopefully, this letter will motivate her.

For one, Guyana now boasts mammography services outside of the GPHC-Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) – Essequibo Coast; Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) – Berbice; Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) – Linden; and Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) – Deep Hinterland. This resulted as the Ministry of Health, responding with immediacy to the need, was able to operationalize additional mammography machines across the country.

Number two is that Guyana recently launched a collaborative partnership with surgical teams from the UK, Trinidad & Tobago, and Jamaica to perform breast reconstruction surgeries “right at the GPHC.” This is simultaneous with training local doctors to standardize this care. Add to this that Guyana is establishing cross-border agreements, such as the recent initiative with Martinique, to import advanced radioactive nuclear drugs and isotopes for targeted cancer therapies. So how dare we ignore or sideline these kinds of interventions and additions?

Now, by way of informing instructively, it is a fact that the entire Caribbean region is struggling to cope with high breast cancer mortality-facing death rates up to two times higher than the United States.

And yes, previously, Guyana’s historical lack of centralized tracking, limited equipment, and aggressive tumor biology did place it at a serious disadvantage. But in recent times, the MOH, under the Ali-led administration, has made aggressive healthcare investments, and now there is a noticeable ‘narrowing of the gap’ between Guyana and the more medically advanced islands.

But still, there is no need to disparage Guyana, as it is Barbados, The Bahamas, and Jamaica that lead the Caribbean in breast cancer mortality rates. The irony is that some of the wealthiest Caribbean nations, with better baseline infrastructure, suffer from the highest breast cancer mortality rates globally, and Barbados consistently records the highest age-standardized mortality rate for breast cancer in the world.

I close by asserting that Guyana’s distribution in breast cancer care is very commendable. Yes, as they say in the US, Canada, and Australia, for example, the highly successful five-year breast cancer survival rates are up to the 80th percentile, but there are noticeable “significant disparities” existing within these places due to “uneven access” to screening, differing healthcare budgets, and historical bottlenecks.

I agree that Guyana has quite a way to go. We have to be patient and hardworking, and the Ministry of Health is indeed being assiduous. All I say is to keep up the good work and ignore the few Karens.

References

1. Oil Wealth Must Translate Into Longer, Healthier Lives- APNU – Village Voice News — villagevoicenews.com ↩
2. Foreign Minister said she was told to revoke observers’ accreditation if necessary - Stabroek News — www.stabroeknews.com ↩