Green Party boss, Sinkamba, bemoans poor access to medicare for cancer patients

Green Party (GP) says it is extremely frustrating that in the last six months, the service at the only Cancer Diseases Hospital (CD) in Lusaka is pathetic due to breakdown of the equipment offering radiation therapy, and poor restocking of essentials.

Party president, Peter Sinkamba in a statement issued on Friday in Kitwe District on the Copperbelt Province said the state of affairs implies that more people are likely to die this year going forward, unless urgent measures are put in place to repair the equipment and restock the essentials.

He said although there is less publicity by government of this silent killer, since 2012, Zambia has witnessed a three-fold increase in the number of cancer cases, of which 70percent are women.

Sinkamba has stated that sadly, the 71 percent of people diagnosed with cancer in the country die from the disease.

“Further, though Zambia has set up the National Cancer Control Unit, and has set goals for cancer control including reducing premature mortality from cancers by 30percent by 2030, very little is being done practically to achieve this goal, and other targets listed in the global plan for the prevention and control cancer diseases,” Sinkamba said.

He noted that significant effort has been made for early detection of cancer at district and provincial levels, whereby procedures such as X-rays, CT scans and mammograms are used for the early detection and diagnosis.

Sinkamba however said the quality of service for appropriate referrals for provision of quality cancer treatment and follow-up through the CDH is pathetic lately.

“Furthermore, government has failed to develop an effective palliative care service at district, provincial and national levels. Patients referred to CDH that do not have relatives to take care of them whilst undergoing radiotherapy are subject to extremely poor care,” he said.

Sinkamba said government has additionally failed to implement an efficient and effective decentralized system of governance and management of cancer programmes to ensure high standards of efficiency, transparency and accountability at all levels of the health sector.

“Most patients have to wait for more than six months on the queue to be attended to. Some end up dying before their turn comes for radiotherapy.

It is extremely ridiculous that Zambia, with a population of almost 20 million people, has only one comprehensive cancer treatment Centre, CDH located in Lusaka,” he said.

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