It is alarming but true. Thousands of cancer patients in Nigeria currently face an uncertain fate as they are not getting the required treatment as at when due. The unfortunate situation has been attributed to the collapse of cancer treatment and support services at designated public and private health institutions nationwide.
Investigations reveal that cancer management has been compromised at major centres, including the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi-Araba, Lagos;
University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu and University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, Benin City, among others, as radiotherapy machines, linear accelerators and other sensitive equipment are obsolete, functioning sub-optimally or broken down completely
Sensitive equipment
Further investigations revealed that the National Hospital Abuja, Usman Danfodio University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto and EKO Hospital, Lagos, which are the only three currently functional centres, are not running optimally, even as they are being overwhelmed by patients who travel the length and breadth of the country to these centres in order to be placed on the long queues for treatment.
Vanguard Features, VF, can authoritatively report that under the multi-billion naira Vamed hospital refurbishing project, former President Olusegun Obasanjo procured eight linear accelerators for eight Federal Teaching Hospitals, but years down the line, the machines have become obsolete and unusable. But in the light of gradual breakdown of these machines, and with no immediate solution in sight, medical experts are worried that the situation spells doom for cancer patients, warning that diagnosis of cancer has become a potential death sentence even as it is threatening to escalate the already precarious cancer epidemic in the country.
Major challenge
The major challenge of cancer care and management in the country before now has remained the lack of accessible screening facilities. Many cancer patients have never had access to basic cancer screening or optimal cancer treatment and are under compulsion to travel abroad in order to obtain adequate and specialised care.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, statistics on cancer situation in Nigeria reveals that more than two million Nigerians have some form of invasive cancer.
With a cancer death ratio of 4 in 5 and an estimated 100,000 new cases diagnosed annually, of which at least 80,000 die, equivalent to 240 Nigerians every day or 10 Nigerians every hour, cancer is one of the highest causes of death in Nigeria.
Experts say the alarming death rate is mainly due to poor infrastructure in order to deal with the problem. There is no single comprehensive cancer centre in the country and over 80 percent of cancer patients have no access to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery while those that receive chemotherapy, radiotherapy and cosmetic surgery may spend an average of N10 million – N20 million on the average.
Some cancer survivors told VF that out of 10 patients, it is unlikely that any would survive under the current situation. In August, a cancer survivor accessing treatment at LUTH died as a result of lack of treatment. The patient was referred to EKO Hospital, Lagos, but could not obtain treatment because the queue was too long and she was eventually asked to seek treatment elsewhere.
Another patient that left Owerri, Imo State for treatment in Lagos told VF that she had been in Lagos for two weeks and spent all she had without obtaining treatment. “We are facing real hard time and the painful thing is that nobody seems to care. The Linear Accelerator in LUTH only works epileptically. The Health Ministry is stinking and should be overhauled.
“With all the corruption going on in this country, government cannot even build one comprehensive cancer centre. Cancer is no longer rare. It is everywhere. It is more common now but nobody is listening to us,” she stated. Executive Director, Care Organisation Public Enlightenment, COPE, Mrs. Ebunola Anozie, said apart from a lack of equipment for treatment most patients are being exploited financially.
Financial exploitation
“Doctors give wrong drugs to patients just to make money from them. No centre is working today because the few you are talking about are epileptic. What we need are comprehensive cancer centres not hospitals where malaria is treated. “Most of the equipment are obsolete; even some of them are still new but obsolete. LUTH prefers to repair its linear accelerator than to purchase two generators that could power the machine effectively.
“Let government try and build one comprehensive cancer centre in Lagos for a start. Private hospitals are trying but they do not have the latest equipment and the only one trying for now is Lakeshore Hospital.”
Anozie who accused government of paying lip service to cancer said: “I am just coming from where I took a patient who could afford treatment in a private hospital; but how many of them can afford it? That is why we are appealing to President Mohammadu Buhari to order a total overhaul of the Ministry of Health and the hospitals for better services. The rot in those places should be sanitised.”
Radiation biology
In a telephone chat, Head of Department, HoD, Department of Radiation Biology, Radiotherapy Radiodiagnosis and Radiography, LUTH, Prof. Remi Ajekigbe confirmed that the linear accelerator at the health institution had broken down and required maintenance.
“Such machines take time to be repaired because of the high cost of maintenance and the fact that the parts are mostly imported. The current unserviceable state of these machines has denied many patients access to treatment, and government needs to repair all the machines in the various centres, procure new ones as well as train more experts in the field.”
Ajekigbe said there was need for government to establish a cancer centre in every state so that patients will not have to travel far before getting treatment. Noting that cervical cancer and prostate cancer are on the rise, he said there is need for government to equip these hospitals in order to save more lives as well as provide palliative care for those who presented late.
“When you delay treatment cancer spreads. A Stage 2 patient may become Stage 3 then Stage 4 and by the time the machine is working again, the patient is dead. There is no reason why these machines should break down because there will be no alternative for those patients.”
Also speaking to VF, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist, at LUTH, Prof. Edamisan Temiye, said allowing the cancer machine to break down was “like telling the patient that you will likely die”. Temiye who also confirmed that currently the machine at LUTH was down, blamed it on epileptic power supply. He warned that the development spells doom for cancer patients as delay in cancer treatment would cause the cancer to spread faster than imagined.
“There is no reason each of those teaching hospitals should not have two radiotherapy machines so that if one breaks down, another one will be working while the other one is being repaired. The pressure on the machines is much. Go to the oncology department you will know that these things are real. It was during the Obasanjo administration that about eight linear accelerators were procured to the eight teaching hospitals and that is the best we have now.
Massive economic cost
“Nobody has supplied any since then; this is over eight years now. So we need to have more. Each of those hospitals needs another accelerator to support them and another form of machine like Cobalt 60 and that is when we will be effective.”
He said when a patient is being given radiotherapy, it would take some weeks. “It is not a one shot thing. You are going to follow them up. They may have complications that you will need to treat and you have to dislodge them from where they are. When they are on treatment another family member will have to stay with them. The economic cost is massive. So we still need to equip the hospitals well.
“Right now it is only two that are working. I am afraid to put my children under EKO Hospital’s machine because it is really old. If these hospitals have more than one machine, the public will not know that any has broken down. It is sad. The machines are expensive.
But if our government is serious they can work with the International Atomic Agency, they support developing countries to acquire these machines to purchase the machines. It is time Nigerians take their future in their hands. Nigerians prefer to contribute for a burial ceremony than to donate to save a living person,” he submitted.
By: Chioma Obinna
Vanguard News
ABUJA: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
PORTHARCOURT: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
LAGOS: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
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