New Oncology Clinic at K.H.M.H.

Ramon Yacab

The nation’s public health sector will be celebrating a milestone on Thursday with the official opening of its first oncology clinic.  Located at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, the clinic has been serving patients for several months during the COVID-19 pandemic for patients requiring the service with travel restrictions in place.  But as the demand grew so did the investment. Since consultations began in 2018, Medical Oncologist at K.H.M.H. Doctor Ramon Yacab has seen about three to four hundred patients annually. 

Ramon Yacab, Medical Oncologist, K.H.M.H.

“The oncology clinic offers a variety of services. One, consultations in regards to patients that have a diagnosis of cancer, staging, work up consultations, treatment in the form of chemo, surveillance, liaison with the different department at the hospital for treatment needs they might require. That includes sergeants, internist and intervention radiologist.   What we have been seeing is that even here at the hospital, we did it by phases, I came in 2018, and during that year we did consultations, keep tracking our patients. We noticed that there was a demand for cancer care. Our second year, with the assistance of Social Security Board, we were able to remodel an area within the hospital to outfit for an outpatient chemo unit. For this year, S.S.B. has been assisting us also to develop a revolving drug fund to make drugs more accessible. For me it does give me a sense of pride that an oncology clinic is being opened within the health system, because we are making the services available to everyone. We think everyone should benefit from these types of services, the enhanced services that we offer.”