Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine consequences of class and medical movement on cancer diagnostic and treatment outcomes.

Paper long abstract:

Cancer care in resource-poor settings involves both intra-country and international mobility in quests for therapy. Generally prognosis is better for clients who seek well-being beyond the confines of resource-poor settings. This paper will examine consequences of class and medical movement on cancer diagnostic and treatment outcomes. Data to support my analysis is based on qualitative interviews I conducted in 2015/2016 over a six-months period at a Ugandan national referral hospital-cancer-unit while offering care to two family members diagnosed with cancer. In the wards, I observed families and clients during their struggle to accept, manage and deal with challenges in meeting increasing costs in healthcare. I interviewed over 20caretakers to find out experiences in cancer care. Among cancer patients observed there were everyday variations in the health status. On average, this unit reported more than 4deaths per-week. Caretakers and patients engaged in treatment movements for diagnostic procedures to other-well-equipped, but expensive private-laboratories, bought medicines from pharmacies and hospitals in Kampala and beyond. Although Aghakhan hospital in Nairobi offered to take 400Ugandan clients for radiotherapy an estimated 1000cancer cases require radiotherapy annually. Consequently, there is intra treatment mobility in Uganda and also international treatment travel mostly by the political elite and middle/upper class in quests for well-being. Its these two categories of medical mobility which I aim to examine while highlighting factors promoting mobility including affordability,loss of trust in national establishments and the experience that cancer treatment has better prognosis if managed early and in well-resourced settings.