Hospice Africa Uganda has three branches, Mobile Hospice Mbarara, Hospice Kampala, and Little Hospice Hoima project to help patients get treatment for cancer (palliative care). In view of this we aimed to find out the factors which influence their late presentation at Hospitals. The World Health Organization (2015) has reported that cancer is the second most common cause of death and was responsible for over 25000 deaths in 2015, approximately 80% occurring in developing countries. It was projected that thiswill increase by 25% over the next 10 years if nothing is done such as putting adequate screening, treatment and prevention measures in place.
The study took place across the three sites of Hospice Africa Uganda. It has cared for about 70500 patients of which 55300 are cancer patients. A qualitative study was used to interview the patients so as to get a deep understanding of the reasons why patients with cancer present late for treatment at regional hospitals and national referral hospitals. Using the semi structured questionnaire guided the interviewers because it helped the patients to discuss freely the reasons why they report late. Then, data was transcribed and analyzed. A report was written and shared with the team of Hospice Africa Uganda across the three branches. These patients were interviewed at the three sites of hospice because come for the palliative care and during the outreach only patients with cancer were elegible for the study. The researchers used local language during the interviews since the majority of patients are more fluent in local language than English. A recording tape was used to store all the discussions for flexibility.
Of theses patients, 68.5% did not have financial support to carry out early investigation, were peasant farmers, with little knowledge of cancer,17.9% had the financial support but were lazy to go to the hospital for checkup.14.3% did not give clear reason, while others were coming far away from the health units.
There is a very big role for the government, and health workers to sensitize the public, set up more health facilities and train more healthcare workers.
Hospice
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All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.