Cancer machines that remained idle for years

Brachytherapy machine at the Jaramogi Teaching and Referral Hospital Oncology department.The machine has been nonfunctional since 1999. [Standard]

Cancer treatment machines worth Sh280 million have been lying idle at a Kisumu hospital because of lack of qualified staff to operate them.

The machines lying at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) were purchased by the Government in 1999, according to the hospital's Chief Executive Officer Peter Okoth.

Dr Okoth said for all that period there had been no staff trained to handle the two machines - Brachytherapy and Teletherapy.

They perform physiotherapy and radiotherapy respectively.

He said he had contacted the manufacturer to help revive the machines, which will now need to be installed with the latest software to be functional.

“We have taken the machines' details to the manufacturers to see if they can be revived," Okoth said.

 American manufacturer

Hospital reports indicate that on average, 30 patients are diagnosed with cancer every month at the facility.

The reports further show that cervical cancer diagnosis topped the list, followed by breast, prostate, endometrial and colorectal cancers.

Okoth said two radio-oncologists were being trained to handle cancer cases at the hospital.

Okoth said if the American manufacturer was able to revive the isotope, a nuclear generator that generates radiation, then by early next year the machines would be operational.

He explained that 70 per cent of cancer patients normally need radiation as part of their treatment, and that is why the machines would be essential. 

He averred that once the machines were functional, the hospital would open a chemo-radiation centre to offer chemotherapy, radiation and help in research.

In an interview with The Standard, Julius Onyango, an oncologist at JOOTRH, said the hospital was the first in the country to receive such machines in 1999.

According to Dr Onyango, other machines were later distributed to hospitals in Nairobi, Eldoret and Mombasa.