NICRAT plans to revive suspended free cancer treatment program for disable persons

The Director General of the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), Prof. Usman Malami Aliyu, has promised to look into the suspended free cancer treatment program for people living with disability in the country to revive it.

He stated this when the Executive Secretary of, the National Commission for Persons With Disability (NCPWD), Mr James David Lalu, and his management team visited him in Abuja, yesterday.

Responding to a request made by the vising team on the need to revive the comatose-free cancer treatment programme, Prof. Malami, assured that: “The activation of the free cancer services that were given to people living with a disability during the previous administration, is something that we need to look into.

“I want to assure the Executive Secretary that we will look at what happened, what led to the suspension of that programme and see to the reactivation of that programme.”

The NICRAT Director General further noted that his Institute will work closely with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the NCPWD to ensure that people living with disability are captured in health insurance for them to have access to cancer treatment.

According to him: “The NHIA covers some forms of cancers. I don’t know whether your people are covered. This is an area our collaboration can cover to see that actually a sizeable number or almost all of the people with disabilities are covered in NHIA.

“We can work on a courtesy visit to the new DG of the agency so that we can make a plea to him so that within the shortest possible time we can have all people living with disabilities are covered in the NHIA. We will have that cancer of the skin covered comfortably.”

ALSO READ: We’ll give our best despite tough times — Makinde

He assured that the Cancer Health Fund (CHF) which is meant to support the treatment of vulnerable people in the country is in the pilot stage, but that following its transfer to NICRAT from the Federal Ministry of Health, it is being remodelled to work optimally.

“After the announcement, the Institute reached out to the National Health Insurance Authority to design a model to implement and also improve the contribution from the government and public sector.

“We are trying to reposition the fund in such a way that it will get the trust of the people within the country and get more support from them and add it with what the government is giving so that we can implement the programme,” Prof. Malami explained.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary, the National Commission for Persons With Disability (NCPWD), Mr. James David Lalu, called for collaboration with NICRAT in the area of having access to cancer screening and treatment for Albinos and people living with disability in general.

He expressed concern that many Albinos in the country die as a result of skin cancer due to lack of prompt access to screening and treatment.

Mr Lalu called for easy accessibility to the cancer treatment centres in the six geopolitical zones and the 36 states of the federation.

“Most of our albinos in the remote areas may have skin cancer and may not know it before it is detected it has already grown and become something big. Those who live in rural communities are the most disadvantaged as some of them die before having access to treatment.

“Most times before they have access to treatment, they have gotten to a stage of no return. We pray you will have a way to help so that we can save the lives of our members.

“Another area of collaboration with your institute is to enable us to have access to sun cream so that our Albino patients can use it to help minimize the impact of sun.

“We want to also see how we can collaborate with your institute in the area of advocacy, sensitization on prevention of skin cancer for albinos in the country.

“It is important to create this awareness for them across the federation so that we can minimize the scourge of skin cancer among the albinos in the country.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE