The government should consider buying cancer treatment machines or work with private hospitals by subsidizing the disease’s treatment, Borabu residents have said.
Speaking at Cheping’ombe village during the burial of Ann Kemunto, who succumbed to the deadly disease at Kenyatta National hospital due to unavailability of cancer treatment machines, many residents faulted the government of the lack of equipment, and asked it to purchase the machines in the financial year 2015/16.
They asked parliament to allocate more money to the Referral Hospitals, so that at least each of them is equipped with the cancer treatment machine.
“This is perilous that government can watch its people die just because we don’t have cancer machines. They have to look for ways of working with private hospitals to avert the crisis,” said Evans Omeru.
“It is improper for some county hospitals to be elevated to teaching and referral hospitals without such essential cancer treatment equipment. The government should ensure that all referral hospitals are equipped with cancer machines if at all they want to prevent more deaths,” added Rachael Orina.
This comes at a time when cancer machines at Kenyatta National Hospital are said to have broken, while the number of patients with cancer related diseases is increasing at the hospital.
“I think this can be done. If the government can construct a standard gauge railway costing billions, why not a cancer machine at least in referral hospitals?,” said Joshua Getuno.