The Tribune

Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Dr Baldwin Spencer announced that the Cancer Centre Eastern Caribbean, a multi-party strategic partnership to create a state-of-the-art Caribbean cancer control programme, has joined forces with cancer management provider Elekta.

Elekta joins private sector entities, including the Cancer Centre Eastern Caribbean (TCCEC), healthcare consumers and government in the partnership, which is designed to significantly increase access to world-class medical services in this underserved region.
According to Conville Brown,TCCEC chairman, the addition of Elekta is unique for the members’ partnered care model. In developing countries, this model typically leverages a “tripartite” partnership that includes private, user (consumers) and government sectors to share the costs of providing specialised health care.
 “In Elekta, we are proud to include a new fourth partner from the industry sector,” the Bahamas’ Dr Brown said. “The company brings its state-of-the-art technology to the partnership, in addition to its desire and dedication to increase access to advanced cancer treatment techniques among the people of the Caribbean.”
An invited speaker at the news conference, Elekta president and CEO Tomas Puusepp remarked that the expansion of cancer care services comes at a critical time for the Caribbean, which has alarmingly high cancer rates. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the Americas, killing 1.3 million annually, with 50 per cent of cancer-related deaths in the Caribbean and Latin America.
 “The Caribbean is a critically important focus for Elekta due to the tremendous need for cancer care services and technology,” Mr Puusepp said. “To be a partner in efforts to address this challenge is an honour for our company and is in perfect harmony with Elekta’s pan-Caribbean strategy to help build cancer care capacity to serve the people of this region.”
As a partner in the Caribbean Cancer Control Programme, Elekta will contribute its MOSAIQ Oncology Information System (OIS) to provide electronic medical records access from several Caribbean countries to TCCEC, the facility in Antigua currently under construction. The company also will be the supplier of radiation therapy treatment machines, the first of which will be an Elekta Infinity equipped with a Agility multi-leaf collimator which will allow precisely targeting the cancer while sparing healthy tissues for improved patient cancer treatment at TCCEC and an identical system for its parent cancer centre in Nassau. 
“I am most pleased to see my dream to host a state-of-the-art cancer centre for the people of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in my home country of Antigua and Barbuda become a reality, and with such fantastic and capable partners. We welcome Elekta into our family of partners” said Prime Minister Spencer, who chairs the OECS and championed the partnered care model for the Caribbean.
Also speaking at the news conference were representatives of the other private sector partners: Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank (construction financing), Mount St John’s Medical Centre (government partner and host), OBMI (facility architect and project manager) and the Antigua and Barbuda Investment Authority (government concessions).