Many women worry that treatment received in our government health system, at a fraction of the cost of private treatment, will be inferior. Usually the only difference between state and private is convenience. In a public hospital, due to resource constraints on staff and facilities, a patient might have to wait for treatment to start – but, in most specialist breast care centres, this should never be longer than international guidelines. Public clinics may also run only once or twice a week.
The Breast Health Foundation believe patients should have access to the same high standard of healthcare in public as is available in private practise: the same expertise, research trials, support groups and psychological care.
The Helen Joseph Breast Care Clinic (HJBCC) is a government hospital unit set up in 2005 to provide world-class breast care to Johannesburg, in a provincial hospital setting.
This units allows patients access to all the available methods of breast pathology, diagnosis and treatment through an integrated,education oriented, multi-disciplinary approach; ensuring cost effective service-delivery and high quality patient care.
If you have no, or limited, medical aid, there are a number of specialist government breast units that will treat you well and manage your Breast Cancer without leaving you in debt.
