You could soon be able to skip trips to countries such as India to seek cancer treatment.
This is because the Integrated Molecular Imaging Centre being set up at the Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital is expected to cut the cost of PET scans by half.
Currently, it costs roughly Sh75,000 for a PET scan in the private sector.
The first comprehensive cancer centre in the country and the region will offer early diagnosis and monitoring treatment of cancer.
It covers 635 square metres located on three floors and a bunker for the cyclotron.
The centre will have accommodation facilities that will host up to 100 patients.
It will house the cyclotron machine whose key function is to produce radio isotopes (consumables) that are used to prepare dosage that is injected into the patient for early diagnosis of cancer through the PET/CT machine.
They are also used to monitor progression of cancer.
The centre will also host a PET radio-pharmacy system which reads the radio isotopes for the imaging and a PET/CT scanning machines.
Combined with an MRI unit, a CT 256 Slice Unit and a national capacity to supply counties with radio isotopes that can serve a minimum of 15 patients daily, the oncology services in the country will receive a major boost.
“Gone will be the days when our loved ones perished because of poor screening, misdiagnosis or inaccessibility to treatment,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
“Cancer will no longer be an automatic death sentence, neither will it be a disease that bankrupts families and erases years of hard work.”
Data from the ministry shows that approximately 50,000 new cases of cancer are registered in the country annually, 70 per cent of whom die.
That means 35,000 lives are lost every year, mostly associated to lifestyle, genetic factors, exposure to chemicals in the environment and hazardous agricultural practices.
Kagwe said a number of deaths are as a result of infrastructural and resource limitation in the healthcare sector. The majority perish because their cancers are diagnosed when they are at advanced stages, hence too late for curative treatment.
“We will tighten our mapping, enhance our prevention services and reverse the increasing incidents of breast, cervical, oesophageal, prostate or leukaemia cancer case that are consuming our people,” the CS said.
It is further estimated that Kenyans spend in excess of Sh8 billion annually seeking for cancer treatment in India, South Africa and Dubai.
Kagwe acknowledged that the high cost of treatment locally is also another limiting factor, forcing many to seek help in foreign countries where there is specialised care.
Whatever the choices Kenyans make, the burden on their pockets is simply overwhelming and must be mitigated, he said.
On that note, the ministry is engaging doctors and the medical council to relook the cost of treatment while the financiers of machinery and equipment will be required to instead give long term repayment period.
It is also projected that once completed, the centre will see an increase in medical tourism from neighbouring countries hence cut the costs of treatment further.
The isotopes that were being used in the country for cancer treatment have to be imported but with the local manufacture of consumables, it is expected to bring the cost of healthcare down.
"We are going to get a lot of people coming from across the borders, medical tourism is going to grow so instead of charging and breaking even on the basis of very few people it means that we can operate a volume based costing systems.”
The national government will work closely with the county governments to ensure hose working as regions get their PET scans and other equipment necessary as determined by medical engineers.
The cost will then be shared between the two levels of government in an attempt to break down the charges.
Edited by R.Wamochie
