Kenyatta National Hospital working to speed up tests, medication

Kenyatta National Hospital is the only public health facility that caters to cancer patients across the country at a subsidised fee.  [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By Frankline Sunday

KENYA: Dr Opiyo Anselmy, who is the head of the Cancer Treatment Centre at the KNH, admits that the referral hospital lacks adequate personnel and equipment, but adds that progress has been made in reducing delays.

“When we receive a patient, they have tests undertaken on them then they are assigned to a doctor who reviews the case and decides on the most suitable treatment,” he explains.

“Previously, we had patients wait for up to five-weeks to be attended to, but we addressed the issues that were causing the delays in our system. Today new patients that come into the hospital are examined within the same week they are received,” he explains.

This has been made possible through the partnerships that the hospital has established with private cancer centres in the country at the Nairobi, Aga Khan and MP Shah hospitals.

The partnerships not only allow for patients to receive consultation and treatment at these centres, it also provides medical oncology students an avenue to get practical experience. However, Dr Anselmy states that for patients who come to KNH, the delay comes in accessing radio-therapy treatment.

“We have only two machines capable of providing radio-therapy treatment at the KNH and these are supposed to cater for the entire country,” he explains. “Radio-therapy accounts for 60 per cent of cancer treatment and we cannot compromise on the quality of treatment for each patient so the delay is inevitable.”

The international standard for developing countries is one machine for 1 million people.

Kenya has only two machines in its public hospitals for its forty million residents, and this means that close to forty more machines are needed.

For the families of many cancer patients however, getting access to medical services is just one piece of the puzzle. Being able to afford the treatment is another stumbling block that has seen families scale down the social ladder.

Cancer treatment and care is expensive the world over, but while developed countries have relatively advanced healthcare and insurance systems to cushion their citizens against the massive costs, patients in developing countries often find themselves on their own once diagnosed.

Costs that can be anywhere from Sh500, 000 to millions of shillings have seen many families go through their life savings, pensions and dispose their assets in order to afford treatment.

Insurance companies have been accused of ditching cancer patients, raising premiums or making it difficult for them to get settlements on their claims.

Man patients

 This is, however, for the less than ten per cent of lucky citizens who have medical insurance.

Stephen Makokha is the business development director of A & K Global Health, a multinational company that provides linkages between patients from different countries who need to travel in search of specialised treatment, physicians and hospitals in receiving countries.

“We have many patients who approach us asking for information on how they can travel to South Africa or India for cancer treatment,” he explains. “We work with the local physician who gives us the case file of the patient which we then use to contact doctors in our network in these countries.”

Once this is done, a quotation is drawn up indicating how much it would cost the patient including the whole treatment regimen, the drugs, air tickets and accommodation.

The costs depends on the type of cancer and the stage at which treatment begins, but for a stage two breast cancer patient for example, overseas treatment may cost them Sh700, 000 and one million in India and South Africa respectively.

“The cost is one thing that puts off many patients and patients without a robust private medical insurer resort to fund raisers or dispose assets in order to meet the costs,” he says.