''Anyone with cancer in Nigeria now is doomed to die a miserable death'' - NMA President

If you have ever had an ailment or visited Luth and other public hospitals you would weep at the condition of patients who are willing to fight for their lives but the equipment needed to support them, are not are not there or are obsolete. Earlier on our blog we wrote about the fact that there is only one Radiotherapy machine functioning in Lagos state, another in Enugu and another in Abuja then in Ibadan.

What is the population of Nigeria and how many citizens who are sick, or accident victims can these equipment treat not to talk about the huge amount fixed for treatment.

Investigations by Punch correspondent has also revealed that public hospitals are battling with obsolete equipment in some hospitals while some medical facilities have none.

showed that the teaching hospitals, which normally should boast state-of-the-art medical machines, lacked equipment which had become basic in other parts of the world.

It was learnt that only four teaching hospitals had functioning radiotherapy machines, there were dearth of equipment such as catheterisation laboratory, C-arm, dialysis machines, mechanical ventilators, intra-operative imaging and CT scanners in the tertiary health institutions. These equipment are now basic in other countries.

According to the Nigeria Medical Authorities there are only eight teaching hospitals in Nigeria with radiotherapy centres – Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba; University College Hospital, Ibadan; National Hospital Abuja, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu; University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin; Usman Danfodiyo Teaching Hospital, Sokoto; and the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe – but about four of them are not in a functional state currently.

“The cancer treatment centre in the University College Hospital, Ibadan; Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe; the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin and that of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, are not functioning at the moment,”

You can imagine the long wait for cancer patients and accident victims.

When asked about the fate of Nigerians without the provision of more Radiotherapy machines, he said;

It is obvious that anybody who has cancer in Nigeria currently is doomed to die because some of them have to go to Ghana, some of them have to go to India, but those who cannot afford to travel abroad will have a long wait and by the time it is their turn it must have gone beyond redemption, most of them die miserable deaths.”

Faduyile said radiotherapy service shortage had increased morbidity and mortality and hiked medical tourism.

He also said the country had only 143 kidney dialysis centres in both public and private hospitals, adding that there were 53 centres in both teaching hospitals and federal medical centres.