Minister of Health, Sylvia Masebo says the government is set to rehabilitate and re-equip the Cancer Diseases hospital (CDH) at more than 30 million United States Dollars.
Ms Masebo said more than 9,000 people in Zambia die from cancer annually and in order to reduce this burden as well as improve access and quality health care, the Ministry of Health has planned to decentralise cancer services.
She explained that within the present National Cancer Control Strategic plan of 2022 to 2026, breast, prostate, gut, cervical and childhood cancers are benchmarked for cancer control as priority malignancies.
“Zambia records on average 15,296 new cancer cases per year. The highest burden of cancer comes from cervical cancer with approximately 3,640 new cases, cancer called Kaposi Sarcoma 2,427, prostate, 1,642 cases, breast cancer 1,111 and cancer of the food pipe is at 534 cases. In addition, childhood cancers, despite being curable, are associated with very high mortality in Zambia,” she added.
The Minister was speaking during the signing ceremony between the Ministry of Health and Siemens Healthineers for the rehabilitation and re-equipping of the cancer diseases hospital.
She said the signing ceremony signifies the long-awaited refurbishment and re-equipping of the Cancer Diseases Hospital will now begin thereby marking a very important milestone on the future of Cancer treatment in Zambia.
Ms Masebo said the government has continued to focus on attaining quality cancer care and better patient outcomes through early cancer diagnosis by establishing screening and diagnostic clinics as close to the local community as possible.
“Cervical cancer screening has been rolled out to 114 out of 116 districts in Zambia. 345 cervical cancer screening clinics have the capacity for immediate treatment of pre-cancer. Unfortunately, we have only four early breast cancer diagnostic clinics, that is one in Livingstone and Kabwe, two in Lusaka,” she added.
She explained that the CDH is the sole facility offering radiation services in both the public and commercial sectors in Zambia.
“The machines at CDH are out-of-date and obsolete with no replacement components available on the global market. They were installed in 2006, 2010, and 2014. It is commonly known that all of this equipment needed to be replaced, preferably, between 2016 and 2019,but this was not accomplished,” she said.
She disclosed that the government , through the Ministry of Health, secured funding and has now concluded the procurement process.
“We have identified a suitable contractor which is Siemens Healthineers, who will provide the much needed radiotherapy turn-key solution for the Cancer Diseases Hospital. This will involve removal of all the dilapidated equipment, repair and rehabilitation of the existing building and reinstallation of brand-new equipment. This will bring state of the art diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy services to the Cancer Diseases Hospital,” she added.
She narrated that the works will involve decommissioning, rehabilitation and construction at a total project cost of over 30.8 million USD.
And Siemens Healthineers International representative Laurent Amiel, said his firm is bringing back radiation oncology to Zambia.
Mr Amiel further said Siemens Healthineers International will bring world class equipment, staff training, technical services and maintenance to Zambia so that the Cancer Diseases hospital can be sustainable for the long term.
“The works can be concluded in the next 12 months. We will immediately commence building the machines and start shipping them in the next six to 12 months combined with staff training,” he added.
He commended the government for ensuring that the best technology in cancer cure comes to Zambia.
