The Ministry of Health last week announced plans to hire more cancer doctors.
But the seemingly noble ambition is no more than run of the mill lip service to a disease ravaging just about every family. It is a case of putting cart before the horse.
Cancer affects almost every household in Kenya and one would expect the government to put in place practical measures that can help the common man access healthcare.
With the country losing over 27,000 people every year to cancer, the ministry admitted the cases could rise in the coming years because the population is ageing.
Last year, 42,000 new cases were recorded. A breakdown of the top three reveal breast cancer (6,800), cervical cancer (5,200) and prostate 3,000.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe reckons, if unchecked, cancer and other non-communicable diseases could cripple the economy.
Only recently the NHIF declared it will stop payment of cancer in private hospitals. Yet many Kenyans cannot afford private insurance. Of those who can afford, many have NHIF as their cover, on which they will be denied cancer treatment.
One would expect the most practical way to deal with cancer is to make healthcare accessible to all because hiring new doctors, who Kenyans won’t have the money to consult, cannot be an option.
It is prudent for the ministry to find ways of making healthcare accessible to all instead of jabbering about plans that will hardly ever see the light of day.
Even as Kagwe states his ambitions, the ministry and the counties can hardly agree about how to fund post-graduate medical training, the very doctors he hopes to train some day in the future.
Make NHIF accessible to all hiring oncologists.
