Shilingi Jumwa, a cancer patient, waits for treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital with a relative. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA
What you need to know:
Revenue sharing team wants two hospitals built every year and Sh1bn set aside for buying drugs.
Cancer patients are set to get a reprieve following recommendations to offer free medicine and construction of two referral hospitals every year in a Sh6 billion plan.
The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) wants the Treasury to set aside Sh5 billion for the two referral centres and Sh1 billion to subsidise the cost of drugs for cancer patients.
Official data shows cancer is the third biggest killer in Kenya after malaria and pneumonia, with experts warning the rate is set to rise.
“The commission recommends that every year, the national government identifies, based on cancer prevalence rates, at least two regions to establish and equip two regional cancer referral centres at a cost of Sh2.5 billion each,” the CRA says in budgetary recommendations.
“(The government) establishes a national cancer drug access programme at a cost of Sh1 billion annually. This will ensure that citizens diagnosed with cancer are treated and have access to necessary drugs, either for free or at subsidised costs.”
Establishing two referral centres every year will gradually ease the pressure on Kenyatta National Hospital and Nyeri Level Five Hospital.
Treatment of cancer is either through surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy or a combination of the options.
“Although a number of county referral hospitals can now diagnose cancer and undertake surgical operation, chemotherapy can only be done at either Kenyatta Referral hospital or at Nyeri level 5 hospitals. Radiotherapy can only be done at Kenyatta Referral hospital,” the CRA says.
The cancer referral facilities will also complement the current diagnosis capabilities that county hospitals achieved with last year’s leasing of medical equipment programme.
The offer of free or subsidised drugs will ease the crippling cost of cancer medicine associated with treating the disease.
For instance, Her2 positive breast cancer patients require specific drugs and more sessions of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Such patients take Herceptin drugs which cost between Sh42,000 and Sh300,000 depending on dosage in private hospitals.
A patient suffering from this type of cancer needs to complete 18 doses, translating to more than Sh5 million —an amount not many can afford.
The National Hospital Insurance Fund caters for part of cancer treatment offering patients a cover of Sh25,000 per chemotherapy session while those getting radiotherapy treatment get a cover of Sh18,000 per session.
The dual proposals by CRA will come in handy to ease the growing burden of cancer as reports show Kenya is a high-risk area.
KNBS data shows that 15,714 Kenyans died from cancer last year, a growing figure from 11,527 in 2011.
A report by the American Cancer Society focusing on women released last week rates Kenya as one of the countries with the highest death rate, mainly from breast cancer.
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