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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Association of Radiation and Clinical Oncologists of Nigeria (ARCON) has predicted a major crisis in the treatment of cancer patients in Nigeria due to the shortage of manpower to attend to millions of Nigerian cancer patients.
The association disclosed that there are fewer than 100 Radiation and Clinical Oncologists in Nigeria, a figure far below the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
President of ARCON Nwamaka Lasebikan, who addressed reporters on the state of cancer in Nigeria, lamented the inadequate response being received from government, corporate organisations and philanthropists regarding cancer response and treatment in Nigeria, even when the disease is killing many people silently or otherwise.
She was particularly concerned that Nigeria is lagging behind when it comes to manpower that would attend to increasing number of cancer patients in Nigeria.
“IAEA standard is that we should have one Oncologist to a hundred thousand population, but that’s not the case in Nigeria, where we have less than 100 Oncologists attending to the needs of millions of patients,” she explained.
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“Ideally, in a country like ours with over 200 million population, we should have at least 2,500 Oncologists attending to the needs of cancer patients. This is as recommended by IAEA but the case is not so. However, while there’s shortage of manpower, many of our colleagues are being enticed with mouth-watering offers abroad, and they are falling to it. Undoubtedly, we are highly overstretched.”
She said the association will partner with religious and community leaders, schools and other relevant stakeholders at the community levels to carry out massive enlightenment and advocacy campaign for improved health seeking behaviors.
Secretary General of the Aasociation Dr Olalade Kehinde, in his remarks, added that Nigeria is not only suffering from shortage of manpower, but also lagging behind on issues of radiotherapy machines.
He explained: “It’s a known fact that there’s shortage of radiotherapy machines in Nigeria. The global standard is that there should be one radiotherapy machine to a million people, but that’s not the case in Nigeria. We have less than 20 radiotherapy machines in Nigeria, and only less than 10 of them are functional. So, patients are forced to travel from far places to locations where they could access the services.”
He lamented the issue of out-of-pocket payment for services, adding, “a regular comprehensive treatment of cancer costs between N500, 000 to N1.5 million. That’s a huge on the kind of economy we are in now, and sadly, over 70 per cent of the patients pay out-of-pocket. It’s a very big challenge.”
He, thus, appealed to their employers, private and public, to provide a good working condition for them to function well so they are not lost to foreign interests.
“Many of our colleagues are enticed with irresistible offers to join services in the other parts of the world and they are leaving. So, we suffering in two ways in Nigeria. People that are being trained are trying to move out of Nigeria, while people who have been trained are also trying to move in search of better opportunities elsewhere.
“However, for some of us that have chosen to stay, we request that a good working condition is provided for us to work effectively and efficiently.”
