MINSK, 16 June (BelTA) – Cancer specialists will focus on early detection of cancer in Belarus in the next five years, Director of the Alexandrov National Cancer Center Oleg Sukonko, a delegate of the 5th Belarusian People's Congress, told reporters on 15 June, BelTA has learned.
“Oncology is the most social trend in medicine, but it is also extremely expensive. I think that oncologists have fulfilled the program of the past five-year period. The new program is aimed at early detection of cancer, and this is the most important thing. If a patient gets to see the professionals when the disease has advanced, the treatment will require enormous money. When the tumor is detected at an early stage, a surgery is done and a person gets better,” Oleg Sukonko said.
Belarus has established such a system of healthcare which is a benchmark not only in the CIS countries, said the head of one of the largest cancer centers in the former Soviet Union. “European countries are examining us too. We have built the system that people need. It is socially-oriented healthcare. It is free. Simultaneously we are developing paid medicine for export. A lot of people from the countries of the former USSR and other countries come to us for high-quality medical help,” Oleg Sukonko said.
“Once we were strongly recommended to switch to insurance medicine. But it does not work. What works is a socially-oriented, free system that we have. We need to improve it further, build new hospitals where they are needed,” Oleg Sukonko noted. In conclusion, he expressed the view that the upcoming Belarusian People's Congress will outline the plans for the further development of the healthcare system in the country to make it even more efficient.