Kenyan cancer patients are increasingly taking buses to Kampala for lifesaving treatment, despite the advances in Kenya.
This is a worrying departure from 10 years ago, when hundreds of Ugandans with cancer would flock to Nairobi for treatment whenever their old machines broke down. They still do, but their numbers have reduced significantly.
The reason Kenyans are journeying to Kampala is that most cancer treatment in Uganda is free, even for foreigners, the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) says.
On the other hand, local health advocates say cancer treatment in Kenya is becoming more expensive and the queues are growing longer.
The Kampala-based UCI, a public hospital designated as East Africa's Centre of Excellence in Oncology, has said it is increasingly seeing more patients from Kenya.
The facility has compiled a list of patients seeking its services for throat cancer. The list shows Kenya is the third biggest supplier of foreign patients for this type of cancer.
“Oesophageal cancer patients from other countries, came in for care; the majority were from the neighbouring countries of Rwanda, mostly Rwandan, followed by South Sudan, mainly Dinka ethnic group, Kenya mostly Luo, Luhya and Kalenjin by ethnicity," the report published in April said.
It is co-authored by UCI executive director Dr Jackson Orem.
Dr Orem said 20 per cent of foreigners receiving free treatment are primarily East Africans. They only pay Ush20,000 maintenance fee (Ksh700) per session, just like Ugandans, the facility noted separately.
In May, Ugandan MPs protested the free cancer treatment of foreigners, who do not contribute taxes to Uganda.
Public Accounts Committee chairperson Mohammed Kivumbi said they would recommend to Parliament to discontinue free treatment for foreigners, according to Capital FM of Uganda.
Dr Orem, in an opinion published by Ugandan press afterwards, said the UCI was becoming popular across East Africa due to recent huge investments.
For instance, in 2020, the government bought the latest TrueBeam radiotherapy machine, the only one in East Africa, at $4 million (Sh514 million).
“This has also come along with an influx of patients from neighbouring countries in the region taking advantage of easy access to excellent services, which in most cases is just a dream in their countries of origin,” he said.
Dr Orem called for a policy to guide access to health services by foreigners in Uganda.
The recent paper Dr Orem co-authored aimed to characterise oesophageal cancer patients seeking care in terms of their ethnicity and where they come from, and post-care outcomes.
It is titled 'The distribution of oesophageal cancer patients enrolled in care at the Uganda Cancer Institute by sub-regions, districts and ethnicity' and was published by the African Health Science journal.
“The baseline data obtained from this study will be the first important step for developing resources, enhancing oesophageal cancer care in our population and performing additional research,” the authors said.
However, the paper also shows an extremely high mortality rate at the Uganda treatment centre.
For instance, of 21 Kenyan patients with oesophageal cancer, eight died and the rest were lost to follow-up.
Uganda has only 20 oncologists. The country records 33,000 new cancer cases every year but loses 21,300 cancer patients every year.
Kenya has about 60 oncologists, records about 42,000 new cancer cases and 27,000 cancer-related deaths annually, according to the Ministry of Health.
In October last year, Kisumu MCAs visited the UCI on a fact-finding mission.
Vincent Jagongo, the North West Kisumu MCA and chairman of health services committee, said they intended to implement the UCI’s model in Kisumu.
“We lose many patients and we spend a lot of money in treating cancer. Some of our citizens are compelled to sell their land to finance treatment,” the ward rep said, according to New Vision.
Kenyatta National Hospital charges Sh3,600 per radiotherapy session. The National Health Insurance (NHIF) pays only 20 sessions for its members, but many patients need up to 33 sessions.
NHIF also pays only six cycles of chemotherapy but many patients need even 12 cycles.
The Auditor General said in 2023 those booked for radiotherapy sessions at KNH waited four months before attending the first session, while those due for chemotherapy waited one and a half months.
Patients due for brachytherapy (cervical cancer treatment) wait for an average of five months before they access treatment services for the first time.
