LOCAL VOICES 本地之聲
A COMMUNITY BATTLE 社群之戰 We ask doctors, industry professionals and cancer survivors in Hong Kong and Macao to shed light on often overlooked aspects of the disease. 我們向香港和澳門的醫生、專業人士和癌症康復者請教了他們的心得。
Words 文 Cathy Lai, Christy Choi and Jamie Ha | Photography 攝影 Anthony Kwan
-Hong Kong 香港-
BEHIND THE SCENES An oncology resident at Prince of Wales Hospital, Dr David Johnson explains how doctors make decisions: “As a health care provider, we are balancing the benefits and risks of our treatments. From clinical experience and research we know that some patients may be at risk of major complications and, in such cases, treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy may not be suitable for them. This does not mean that we have given up on the patient. It means that we have taken the patient’s quality of life as a higher priority. “The patient should always weigh the pros and cons of each treatment [ie is it curative or palliative]. The benefits may not actually be that significant, and this should always been seen in the context of the known side effects [in case they could be life-threatening].”
Hong Kong’s public hospitals are often backed up with months-long waits for care. Clement Chan, chairman of the Cancer Patient Alliance and a leukaemia survivor, offers a solution: “We believe there should be more cooperation between public and private providers. With incentives from the government, the private sector could offer a discount for initial tests to ease the burden on the healthcare system and ensure a quicker diagnosis. “If private hospital doctors can run the preliminary tests first, public hospital doctors can provide a second opinion, then pick up the case. This way, you’ll have the scans and the diagnosis completed, and a doctor’s second opinion within 14 days.”
病症背後
漫長等待
威爾斯親王醫院腫瘤科醫生David Johnson分享了他的想法：
香港公立醫院的診症輪候期經常數以月計。香港同路人同盟主 席、血癌康復者陳偉傑提出一個解決方法：
「作為醫療服務提供者，我們要平衡治療方法的好處和風險。透 過臨床經驗和研究，我們知道有些病人發生嚴重併發症的風險更 大，而在這種情況下，諸如手術或者化療的治療手段就可能不適 合他們了。這並不意味著我們放棄了病人。這代表我們更加重視 病人的生活質素 。」 「病人應該經常衡量每一項治療的利弊（比如，那是治愈 性的，還是紓緩性的）。這些好處實際上可能不太顯著，而這應 該被理解為已知的副作用（如果它們可能威脅生命）。」 146
WAIT TIMES
ARIANA 2019
「我們認為，公私營醫療服務提供者之間應該有更多合作。倘若 政府能夠提供誘因，私營服務提供者便可以向病人提供初步診斷 折扣優惠，以減輕醫療系統的負擔，並確保更快的診斷。」 「如果私家醫院醫生可以先做初步測試，公立醫院醫生便可以 提供第二意見，然後接收病症。這樣你就可以在14天內完成掃描 和診斷，並獲得另一名醫生的意見。」
