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Children to get free medical care soon

As part of the Government’s plan to manage cancer cases and increase treatment, the Ministry of Health also wants the treatment covered by the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

Under the National Cancer Control Strategy (NCCS) for 2017-2022, the Government further seeks to rope in private partners and county governments to address the cancer menace.

It wants county governments to set aside funds for cancer prevention, screening and early diagnosis.

Director of Medical Services Jackson Kiok, during the launch of the strategy last year, said the Government would set up four regional cancer centres in Kisii, Nakuru, Nyeri and Mombasa counties.

Currently, most Kenyans in need of specialised cancer treatment go to Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu.

While the Kenya Network of Cancer Organisations put the number of new cancer cases at 39,000 annually, the NCCS said there was poor data on the actual number of persons affected.

“There is a need to address inadequacies with regard to human resource, equipment and operational costs as well as enforcing regulation of professional requirements for documenting and reporting cancer diagnoses,” added the document.

Latest technology

The ministry also plans to prioritise early diagnosis.

“Diagnostic services should employ, where applicable, the latest technology available so as to provide the latest biological and physical characteristics of cancers to enable specific management,” said the strategy paper.

Cancer diagnosis is done by less than 100 pathologists across the country. It is for this reason it takes even up to a month to get biopsy results to establish if one has cancer or not.

It was also noted that guidelines for cancer diagnostic tests, including pathology, are generally unavailable and no quality control measures are applied.

“As reported in the Impact report 2016, pathology services are also centralised in Nairobi, with limited access in most counties throughout the country. Overall, pathology services are inadequate and unevenly distributed among the private sector,” NCCS noted.

The Kenya Network of Cancer Organisation's David Makumi said while the 2017-2022 cancer strategy had received good support, the country had yet to fully implement the Cancer Prevention and Control Act.

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