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Agony of cancer patients facing SHA systemic failures daily

Agony of cancer patients facing SHA systemic failures daily
Vice Chair of Non –Communicable Diseases Alliance (Kenya) John GIkonyo (left), Kenyan Network of Cancer Organisations (KENCO) Chairman Elo Mapelu (centre) and the Chairlady of Cancer Survivors Association of Kenya Prisca Githuka at a press briefing in Nairobi yesterday. PHOTO/BERNARD MALONZA

Rose Wambui Gichuhi hoped she would never go back to Hall 8 at the All Saints Cathedral any time soon. As fate would have it, the testimony she had to share on her cancer journey, as the world marked World Cancer Day yesterday, availed that bittersweet opportunity.

As she sat through a press conference, she looked around the room, and indeed the memories, heart-breaking ones, as she recollected and shone bright in her hopeful eyes.

“It is strange that eight years ago, in this hall, my family was in this room fundraising for my daughter for cancer but she lost the fight against the disease in 2020,” she narrates.

And this was just three years before she too was diagnosed with Stage Three breast cancer.

Battling Stage 4 cancer now, Wambui is on palliative chemo, but in most cases, while seeking services the day ends with frustrations as the Social Health Authority (SHA), which took over from the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) on October 1, 2024 is still in shambles for most of the cancer patients.

“Since I was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer in 2023, NHIF couldn’t cover the outpatient treatment then, because they only covered inpatient and that was the bed only. Even though I had to pay for the rest out of pocket, at least I could get my PET scan,” she says, adding that it was easy because she gave cash.

However, despite the new scheme focusing more on the digital system, Wambui, like other cancer patients, wonders why there are no drugs in public hospitals, yet payments are done through the Citizen.

At the same time, the patients are wondering why the same drugs that are not in government facilities are available in private hospitals.

“Well, yes, one can say that the country has made a few remarkable strides by acquiring more PET scans as compared to a few years ago. However, it’s really frustrating at the end of the day, when you spend a lot of time doing the necessary procedures, and end up being told there are no drugs,” she explains.

She says the more annoying thing is that the referrals by doctors at public health facilities such as Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), take patients to their own private facilities.

There are three PET scan machines now. Eight years ago, there was only one PET scan at Aga Khan Hospital.

Wambui lost a medical opportunity to get the palliative chemo treatment she is undergoing because they could not get a PET scan appointment for her. It was being paid for by SHA.

“I had to wait for a month and half and that would have been in the middle of last month. So that opportunity missed me, and that was to be in the middle of January,” she adds.

In December, for her second chemo, she had to buy one of the drugs that were not available at Kenya University Teaching Research and Referral Hospital (KUTRRH). On January 16, she was supposed to have her third chemo, but not a single drug that was prescribed was available.

“Before you do chemo you have do a blood test that are very expensive, and I had to pay out of pocket, and only valid for 14 days and I did it on January 15 which cost me Sh3500, and paid in cash,” she says.

By yesterday there were no drugs and she had to buy in cash.

Wambui used to pay around Sh950 for NHIF but now with SHA they have put her on Sh1030 per month.

“My limit for chemo is Sh3000, the first treatment was Sh237,000, the second one came to around Sh238,000, and because I am supposed to do another two CT scans, which comes around Sh40,000,” she says.

Chronological chaos

However, the sad thing is when she pays through eCitizen, meaning the patients are paying directly to the government. The question they are asking is; why can’t the government ask Kemsa to deliver drugs to the hospitals.

Esther Wanjiku, a resident of Dandora, gave a chronology of what they go through for five days to be served.

“We have so many challenges, especially at KNH, where I go for treatment. Some of these challenges are; you go there, and you are told there are no doctors, no medicine, and sometimes there is so much delay; the systems are down, and so you cannot access the treatment,” she tells People Daily.

Currently, Wanjiku has done 24 sessions, and continuing. After every three weeks, she does one chemo session. But by yesterday, she had waited for three months now.

Wanjiku said there are no drugs that SHA pays for, and when one goes to a Level Six hospital, they are referred to a private hospital, where one can wait up to five months for drugs.

“To add insult to injury you are directed to look for drugs out there and the doctor who is seeing you is the one referring you,” she reveals.

She uses very expensive drug, at a cost of around Sh165,000, and this is after every three weeks.

“Initially, the NHF was covering at a maximum of Sh600,000. I’ve done chemos, it was 18 sessions, but after doing the 18 sessions, we were told we are continuing the same treatment until further notice, as much as the body can take,” Wanjiku narrates, explaining that SHA covers only Sh300,000 per household per year.

“So, for my treatment, which is Sh165,000, it covers just two”.

Yesterday under the Kenyan Network of Cancer Organisations (KENCO) the patients highlighted that the challenges they are facing started when NHIF was scrapped, and made several demands they want the government to address.

The challenges included shortage of life-saving cancer medication (Herceptin) and other essential drug, denial of cancer and NCD Services, system failures and delayed access to care, severe delays in radiotherapy treatment, and diagnosis delays among others.

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