NMA tasks FG on inclusion of cancer treatment in NHIS

WORRIED by the rising cases of cancer in the country, the President, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Francis A. Faduyile has urged the federal government to include cancer control and treatment in services covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS.

Faduyile who spoke yesterday in Benin in a paper titled: I am And Will  Fight Cancer” at the World Cancer Day remarked that the inclusion of cancer patients in n NHIS will enable patients access cheap and affordable health care services in the country.

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Represented by the state chairman of NMA, Dr. Valentine Omoifo, he commended the effort of the federal government towards the implementation of the Nigerian National Cancer Control Plan 2018-2022.

He added that the ongoing renovation of cancer treatment facilities in tertiary centres in the country, such as the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, National Hospital, Abuja and the National Cancer Centre, Abuja were good initiatives as there is need to urgently raise the awareness on cancer prevention.

Faduyile lamented that cancer deaths in Nigeria is still one of the worst in Africa, with an estimated 70, 327 cancer deaths in 2018.

The Chief Medical Director, University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Dr. Darlington Obaseki noted that the hospital is determined to tackle the menace of cancer in the country.

Obaseki explained that ss a tertiary health centre, the hospital was supposed to provide tertiary care to patients with cancer and other diseases, emphasizing that the hospital has over the past one year, dedicated and built a fifty bedded ward for treating cancer patients.

“What that implies is that, a specialist attention that is required across different specialty for nursing care, pharmacy care, radio oncology care, surgical oncology care, they domiciled around that place. So that can help upscale their quality of care the patients  get.

“We have also now as we speak taken delivery of what we call the brachytherapy machine. This is a special machine that uses radiation to treat cancer. The federal government has graciously provided one for us though it has not been fixed yet, the installation process will take awhile maybe a month or two before we finally come on stream.

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“What that means is that, hitherto before now, patients with cancer who needed this service travel very far, at a stage, we were going as far as Maduguri and Abuja to get this treatment.So once we bring this on board, there will be no need for that.

For the President, Medical Women Association of Nigeria and Head, Department of Radiation Oncology Department, UBTH, Dr. Eriba Lucy Omosefe, the dreaded disease was spreading very fast and so all hands must be on deck to curb it and reduce its spread.

“Cancer is already an epidemic in Nigeria and the rate, increase in incidence is alarming.

“Cervical cancer kills one woman everyday, 40 women die of breast cancer everyday, 26 men die of prostrate cancer everyday, over a hundred thousand Nigerians also have cancer annually and out of this hundred thousand, about 80 percent of them will die from this disease.

“So, this is a wake up cry because we know that here in Nigeria, late presentation is a problem, people come late. Early detection is key.”