FORMER Bulawayo East legislator Thabitha Khumalo has bemoaned the huge cost of cancer treatment in Zimbabwe, saying vulnerable people struggled to meet the costs.
Khumalo, who suffers from breast cancer, said the cancer
treatment costs were draining as it was very expensive to access the
life-saving treatment.
The former legislator was diagnosed with cancer in April
2020.
“I haven’t received assistance,” she told journalists on
the sidelines of a Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) rally recently, noting
she had been paying the bills from her own pocket.
Since her diagnosis, Khumalo said she has spent “between
US$6000 to US$7000” yet requires an additional US$10 000 for surgery.
“I don’t have it and what I’m going to do is just do the
best that I can under the circumstances then the rest I will leave it to God,”
she said.
Some patients at Mpilo Central Hospital, who were
undergoing chemotherapy, said they spend
US$150 for drugs that were used for one session.
An oncology nurse at Mpilo’s radiotherapy unit, Blessed
Goredema confirmed medication and cancer treatment was ‘always’ expensive, as
patients underwent several tests, regiments and clinical cycles.
“In oncology, we always say ‘no meat, no diagnosis’ as we
don’t just assume it’s cancer until we are positive.
“After a patient has gone through histology, (a microscopic
test structure of tissues) we do other investigations – chest Xray, ultrasound
scan, blood tests, liver function tests, sometimes a CT scan and various tests
for metastasis (the spread of cancer cells from the place where they first
formed to another part of the body),” he explained.
“These tests are necessary for diagnosing which stage the
patient’s cancer is in so that it can be dealt with accordingly,” said
Goredema.
“Patients have to buy most of these drugs themselves.
“Sometimes if the radiotherapy machine is working, they can
do radiotherapy for free, if they have a social welfare letter and be treated
for free. But for chemotherapy, patients have to buy these drugs.
“For the first round, there are about four cycles before
moving on to another regimen, which may be four cycles again.
“Patients will be coming in after every 21 days for the
first cycle, then go through another cycle after 21 days.
“If you have a letter from social welfare or have medical
aid, you don’t pay but we try to assist most of our patients. We also recommend
patients to go to social welfare.
“When patients have a letter from social welfare, they
don’t use it to buy mediation but use it for investigation tests done in
government hospitals, the chest X-ray, ultrasound scan, administrative costs
and hospital admission.”
However, at the moment, the radiotherapy machines at Mpilo
are down and patients have to travel to Harare.
Goredema said the radiotherapy machines were “very
delicate” so the malfunction was due to software technicalities.
Previously, the hospital had cited issues of battery power
but that challenge has been solved.
“This is another cost, as patients have to look for
accommodation for maybe six weeks in Harare, and they will be travelling every
day up and down.
“Perhaps this software challenge may be solved before
mid-year or year-end,” Goredema said.
Mpilo is currently offering chemotherapy sessions although
the oncologist noted the setting was not conducive, as there were few beds and
drugs were administered while patients were sitting.
“We need beds like those in Parirenyatwa Hospital (in
Harare),” he highlighted.
Depending on the severity of that cancer, the oncologist
said surgery could be done to remove the cancerous lump.
“For instance, we can do a mastectomy, removing the
breast,” he said.
“Cancerous cells can move from one point to other, through
the lymphatic system. So we have to do mastectomy and remove lymph nodes
because they are connected to the lungs and can spread to rest of the body,” he
said and underlined there were three modes of cancer treatment – surgery,
radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
“These work hand in hand. We do chemotherapy to shrink the
tumour, after shrinking, we can do surgery then radiotherapy.
“Chemotherapy is a systematic way of treatment that goes
all through the body destroying cancerous cells.
“Radiotherapy is a localised way of treatment, treating
that affected area only,” he said.
Goredema noted radiotherapy was done after surgery in case
microscopic cells were left behind and would be trying to target those
localised cells.
However, the oncologist lamented that not all patients who
had breast cancer were treated.
“If there’s metastasis, we advise the patient to go home as
there’s nothing we can do, though we can do palliative chemotherapy, to reduce
signs and symptoms as we try to improve the quality of life of that patient,
not necessarily say we are treating,” he said.
“We can also do palliative radiotherapy.” — CITE
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