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Fort Portal, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Cancer Institute-UCI has set up a breast cancer clinic at the Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital with an aim of improving breast cancer care coordination services in the region. Dr. Collins Mpamani, a public health specialist from the Uganda Cancer Institute, says that the clinic is the first of its kind away from its headquarters in Kampala.
Situated in the out patient department at the Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, the cancer clinic will provide free services to both men and women and will operate every Wednesday from 9am to 5pm. Dr. Mpamani says the clinic is equipped with an ultrasound scan tissue biopsy machine for examination. It currently lacks a mammogram X-ray machine, which is specifically designed for breast cancer diagnosis.
He explains that their countrywide cancer screening exercises show that 10 out of every 5000 men are diagnosed with cancer monthly in all the 13 regional referrals. Dr. Mpamani says that their decision to establish cancer clinics in the country’s major health facilities is meant to reduce the long-distance patients and members of the general public have been making to access cancer screening in Kampala.
Dr. Rauben Kyomukakama Agara, a surgeon at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, says that they register 6 patients with breast lamps at an advanced stage weekly.
He explains that the majority of the cases referred to the Uganda Cancer Institute don’t go for further diagnosis due to financial constraints.
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