Cancer patients to get free radiotherapy at KNH

Cancer patients with National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) cards will access radiotherapy for free at the Kenyatta National Hospital from October after the installation of a Sh300 million machine donated by India.

With the machine, cervical, breast and prostate cancer patients will be treated at KNH.

Non-NHIF members are charged about Sh500 per session at KNH and a patient may require up to 20 of them.

Bhabhatron II will treat 40 to 50 patients daily, according to the Ministry of Health, using cobalt radiation to kill cancer cells by targeting them without damaging surrounding tissue.

It is expected to “offer palliative care (that is, relieve pain) in advanced cancers of the cervix, breast and prostate”, said Health Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri.

The machine will project the treatment area onto a computer screen, where the health practitioner will confirm the accurate delivery of the radiation beam for the safe and effective procedure, says a brochure.

It will provide treatment alongside two other radiotherapy machines for the more than 1,000 patients waiting for treatment, some scheduled for next year.

Dr Muraguri also hinted at a widely affordable or even free “cancer treatment programme” — as is the case with tuberculosis (TB), malaria and HIV in public facilities — which he said was “in the works”.

He said engineers from India, including a nuclear physicist, have been in Kenya to “advise us how to customise the bunkers that will house the equipment before we commence treatment. They have completed their assessment and we should be moving with speed to replace the old machine with the new one.”

The new equipment—commonly used for cancer treatment in India, where it was developed in 2006 — will replace the oldest of the three machines at the KNH radiotherapy department, which has broken down several times.

More than 10,000 cancer patients seek treatment overseas annually, including in India, spending Sh11.28 billion.