UAE | Health
Cancer screening is cheap and effective
Tawam hospital has a series of programmes in place to ensure early diagnosis and treatment
- By Aftab Kazmi, Bureau Chief
- Published: 00:00 October 22, 2010
Al Ain: Preventive screening as well as the treatment of cancer is not completely free-of-charge for expatriate patients at Tawam Hospital, a leading oncology centre in the UAE.
The hospital, which operates in association with Johns Hopkins Medicine, handles a large number of cancer cases from across the UAE which include both Emiratis and expatriate residents. The hospital, however, offers free treatment only to Emirati patients.
The cancer screening, said a spokesperson at Tawam, is not very expensive compared to the cost of its treatment.
The treatment is a lengthy and costly affair that is normally covered by expatriate's insurance agencies.
Support programme
The hospital has a system in place for expatriate patients who are not covered by a medical insurance programme, the spokesperson said. "It, however, depends on individual cases and treatment expenses are covered under the support programme," she added.
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A hospital source said the detection of cancer in the UAE has increased over the years due to better awareness about the disease and its symptoms.
"People are more aware about the disease and they go for medical check-ups if they see any of the symptoms," said the source.
The awareness has helped in the early detection of the cancer which is 100 per cent curable if detected in the early stages. "We are, however, still receiving some cases at the very late stage," he said.
A general increase of three to five per cent is being monitored in cancer cases all over the world due to many factors that are known for contributing to the spread of this disease. The bulk of these cases are in developing countries.
Specialised clinics
The oncology department at Al Tawam was established in 1996 with a total cost of Dh50 million out of which Dh38 million were invested in acquiring the most-advanced equipment.
The hospital has cancer patients referred to it from other hospitals and clinics in the UAE. The Oncology Department at Tawam Hospital consists of four divisions: Oncology, Haematology, Radiotherapy, and Palliative Care.
Its clinics are highly-specialised and offer counselling, diagnostic work-up, planning of radiotherapy, chemotherapy treatment and transfusion of blood products.
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