Committee reserves Sh200m for establishment of cancer centres

Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Health next to a radiotherapy machine at Kenyatta National Hospital on April 28, 2015. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Centres will be distributed across the country and managed in the same manner as that of the leasing scheme the government is using in county-managed hospitals, says Dr Robert Pukose.

Cancer patients will no longer have to wait long for therapy after the National Assembly’s Health Committee set aside Sh200 million for establishment of four treatment centres.

The committee’s vice-chairman, Dr Robert Pukose, said the allocation, which was not in the estimates submitted by the National Treasury, was made in order to ease patients' suffering.

He said the centres would be distributed across the country and managed in the same manner as that of the leasing scheme the government was using in county-managed hospitals.

“By May 2017, there will be no waiting list,” Dr Pukose said at a meeting with the Budget and Appropriations Committee on Tuesday as he presented recommendations on allocations for the next financial year.

He said with Sh200 million, the Ministry of Health would advertise for companies to take up the job. The firms would then set up the centres and start treatment.

Among the shortfalls of the leasing plan for county hospitals is that it has only provided machines to diagnose and not to treat cancer.

He said the centres would also serve as research and teaching institutions.

The bulk of the cancer patients are usually treated at Kenyatta National and Moi Referral and Teaching hospitals, with those who can afford it going to private hospitals or abroad.

With the leasing model, the centres would have the equipment managed by the suppliers, who would repair and replace them when necessary. The companies would only be paid after services are rendered.

However, given that the centres were not in the ministry’s original plan, it would have to adjust its programmes. The ministry would also be charged with the responsibility of determining where the centres would be.

The committee expressed concern about reliance on donor funds. In the next financial year, Sh20 billion of the money the ministry would be getting will be directly related to functions managed by county governments.