Two Steps Forward; Ten Steps Backwards

I found out last week that the mastectomy specimens at the government hospital, which have for the past year been sent to the private lab and been paid for by Breast Cancer Network, are now being sent to the government lab again. The reason we send them to the private lab is that the government lab takes months to get results back, and we get results back from the private lab in 7-10 days. For Zodwa, it took the government lab 11 months before her pathology report was available. This is just not acceptable for cancer specimens. Evidently, the pathologist has convinced the powers that be, in the government system that he is able to get reports back in 15 days. I spoke to the surgeon and told him, this just isn’t true. The last one that was sent on the 30th of July still wasn’t ready on the 8th of September. This is extremely frustrating to me, especially since it causes our patients treatments to be delayed. Please pray for wisdom for us in this situation! We are planning to keep track of the data, when specimens are sent and when reports are available and report this to the Principle Secretary of the Ministry of Health. I am just concerned about how many patients treatment will be delayed and outcomes affected!