Delays in cancer diagnosis remain one of the Northern Division’s most pressing health challenges, the oncology nursing unit manager at Labasa Hospital warned on Friday, as staff marked International Women’s Day with a community outreach in Banisucu, Labasa.
Mereoni Korovavala told the outreach participants that early detection was critical to improving a patient’s chances of survival. “For cancer, the earlier it is detected, the easier it is to manage,” she said, adding that any postponement in diagnosis or treatment “is not favourable for the patient.” Korovavala stressed that rapid case identification depends on strong coordination between medical and surgical teams at the hospital.
Korovavala outlined how Labasa Hospital relies on community-level screening and awareness work by doctors and primary health teams to identify symptoms early and refer patients for further assessment. The outreach in Banisucu — one of several community activities around International Women’s Day — was used to reinforce messages about watching for warning signs and seeking prompt care.
The hospital currently has about 150 cancer patients on its register, Korovavala said, a figure that includes people diagnosed in previous years. She confirmed that several of those patients are presently receiving chemotherapy at Labasa Hospital, underscoring that treatment services are being provided locally even as diagnostic delays persist.
Her comments come against a backdrop of wider health sector investment announced earlier in the year, when the government allocated $540 million for improvements across Fiji’s hospitals and health services. Health officials say boosting infrastructure and service capacity is part of efforts to reduce barriers to timely diagnosis and treatment, but Korovavala’s remarks indicate that coordination and early detection remain bottlenecks in the Northern Division.
Community outreach events such as the Banisucu programme are seen by health workers as vital for bringing screening and referral information to villages and settlements where awareness and access can be limited. Korovavala called on community leaders and health workers to maintain regular awareness campaigns and to ensure referrals are made promptly when symptoms are suspected.
The Labasa Hospital team’s message at the International Women’s Day outreach was clear: improving survival rates for cancer patients will require both sustained community engagement to catch disease early and continued strengthening of hospital coordination so that suspected cases move quickly from detection to diagnosis and treatment.
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