The agreement between NHIF and the Aga Khan University Hospital through which cancer patients will be offered PET scans to be paid for by the insurance fund should come as a relief to Kenyans who have had to travel abroad for this service.
For a long time, public health institutions have been overwhelmed by the cancer burden, leaving them unable to adequately and effectively respond to the high demand for cancer screening and management services.
This has meant that those without private medical cover or pockets deep enough to pay for such services in private hospitals have been denied potentially life-saving services. Others had to travel abroad for the same, invariably increasing the cost of healthcare on affected families.
The decision by NHIF to fully cover the cost of the PET scans for its members will go a long way in alleviating the pain of patients who have to live with the terminal disease and who have until now had access to limited choices of where they can get cancer-management services.
This should now encourage other private hospitals to consider offering related services at affordable costs to spread the benefits to more Kenyans, especially when the number of new cancer cases and cancer-related deaths are on the rise.
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