TAKING ON A FRAGMENTED CANCER CARE SYSTEM

The shortage of oncologists is an issue faced by the whole world, including Malaysia.

- 

Demand for cancer treatment is expected to grow by 40 percent over the next six years, while at the same time, the American Society of Clinical Oncology is projecting a shortage of more than 2,200 oncologists by 2025.

‘Closer to home, the Ministry of Health has reported that Malaysia needs 300 oncologists based on the WHO guideline of 1 oncologist per 10 million population. Malaysia currently has only 117 oncologists, indicating a sheer shortage of oncologists in the country.

“One of the main issues that the country faces is that oncologists are not easy to be trained to match the ever-increasing cancer incidences in the country. As oncology is a very specialised field, the average duration taken to train an oncologist in Malaysia is estimated to take an average of 5 to 10 years,” says Phoebe Ho, Chief Executive Officer of Integrated Oncology Centres (IOC).

Another issue, she says, is that cancer incidences are rising rapidly and this adds to the burden of cancer care in Malaysia, creating a larger gap between the number of oncologists to match patients.

Reports show that cancer incidences in Malaysia have been increasing rapidly, with new incidences registering growth by 11.3 percent and advanced cancer cases increasing by 8.5 percent from 2007 - 2011 period to 2012 - 2016 period.

This increase is expected to continue as Malaysia‘s population continues to age.

HOW CAN PRIVATE ENTITIES HELP?