State should protect patients from lethal herbal concoctions

A cancer screening at the Mbagathi Hospital, Nairobi. [Jeckonia Otieno, Standard]

Non communicable diseases have been on the rise in recent years. Notable among them is cancer that is causing a lot of devastation especially among the low income earners who cannot afford the prohibitive cost of managing it. In any case, our public hospitals are not adequately equipped to handle such diseases.

Until the national government entered into the Sh38 billion managed hospital equipment scheme in 2015 and equipped two hospitals in each of the 47 counties with diagnostic machines, the strain was on Kenyatta National Hospital where the waiting list stretched to years. Many patients died before they could be attended to.