Lack of funding delaying decentralization of cancer treatment: UCI

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Lack of funding and competing priorities are delaying the government’s efforts to decentralize cancer treatment in Uganda, the Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, heard Wednesday during her tour at Uganda Cancer Institute.

In 2018, the government announced plans to establish five regional cancer treatment centers in Mbale for Eastern Uganda, Gulu for the North, Mbarara for the West, and Arua for the West Nile region. Construction for the regional centers is estimated to cost over 175 billion Shillings. The government has so far launched the construction of the Northern Uganda Regional Cancer Institute which started in August 2021.

The construction is funded with a loan worth US$ 7.5 million (about 30 billion Shillings) from the Republic of Austria. Currently, over 200 patients receive treatment at the Uganda Cancer Institute in Mulago, which has stretched doctors and available facilities. The wards that were designed to host 30 patients currently accommodate more than 50 patients.

Patients compete for space with some sleeping in corridors while others share wards despite their sex. Dr. Jackson Orem, the Executive Director of Uganda Cancer Institute says that until they have regional centers where some patients can be attended to, they cannot turn away patients seeking treatment.

During her tour at the Institute, Nabbanja asked doctors to enhance their efforts in cancer prevention. Although there is no known cause of cancer, there are several risk factors, many of which are linked to lifestyles like poor eating habits, obesity, consumption of plastics, and environmental degradation among others.

Nabbanja says that the number of patients seen at the Institute is alarming, which calls for effective preventive measures to reduce the cases. Expressing the government’s commitment to deal with cancer, Nabbanja revealed the government’s plans to adopt a multi-sectoral approach to address cancer prevention and treatment.

Nabbanja asked the administration of the Institute to draft a paper with their plans and suggestions, which she will then present before Parliament for debate and consideration.

Dr. Jackson Orem says that government has been preoccupied with other diseases, which has limited its intervention in the fight against cancer. He says that there is already a Comprehensive Cancer Control plan based on three pillars; prevention, treatment with the intention to cure, and treatment to prolong life.

So far in prevention, the leadership of the institute, says that they have continued to work with the Ministry of Health to carry out vaccination against the Human Papillomavirus, which has been attributed to cervical cancer, the most dominant cancer among women patients in Uganda.

Dr. Orem says that they also have about 14 people who go around the country sensitizing people about cancer and screening them for early detection of cancer. Over 80 percent of cancer patients in Uganda die due to late diagnosis. By the time they are found to have cancer, it has spread and ground to stages it can’t be treated and a life saved.

Currently, the government is expanding care infrastructure at the Mulago campus with the construction of a new 8-level inpatient building, a six-level two-block with funding from the African Development Bank-ADB.

The campus shall house facilities for reference, cancer laboratory, MRI, cancer surgical suites, outpatient clinics, and Intensive Care Unit-ICU among many other facilities to improve patient care.

Every year, 10 million people around the world die from cancer, a number higher than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. It is estimated that by the year 2030, cancer deaths around the world will increase to 13 million people if no new measures are put in place.

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