Big trouble for cancer patients in Nigeria who don’t have money to fly abroad

The uncertain fate of cancer patients in Nigeria has become more precarious as government-owned treatment machines, which are grossly inadequate and sited in seven locations across the country, have not worked for months.

Saturday Punch investigations revealed that some of the cancer treatment machines in the government-owned hospitals have not worked since 2016. Federal Government-owned hospitals with cancer treatment centres are in Maiduguri, Zaria, Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Benin and Enugu.

Even if all the cancer treatment machines in the country work effectively, they will only represent a fraction of the number of equipment needed in the country.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, told Saturday Punch on Thursday that Nigeria needed about “200 cancer treatment machines”, while investigation showed that there were less than 20 machines in the country, including the ones in the Federal Government-owned hospitals in the seven cities.

Cancer treatment equipment include CT scan, MRI and radiotherapy machines, among others.