For how long will our health system remain unequipped and sick?
For how long will our health system remain unequipped and sick?
An Epilogue to the
Book: Know Cancer, Conquer Cancer
by:
Lanre Jacob
From our Foundation’s interaction with the
Public Healthcare system, through our cancer awareness program across Nigeria,
we found a conspicuous absence of Oncological services, especially at the
Primary Healthcare level.
This gap is not only risky, it has also made
it difficult for policy makers to realize and frontally challenge the
devastating effect of cancer in the country. The few cancer facilities that are
capable of cancer diagnosis and treatment are usually not available at the
Primary Healthcare level and are therefore inaccessible to the urban and the
rural poor populations.
This lack of access to oncology services by
most patients at grassroots has consequently brought Nigeria under the
captivity of cancer with little or nothing being done by both governments and
global agencies to tackle the low survival rate of cancer in the country.
The World Health Organization estimates that
annually in Nigeria, out of every 100,000 people that have cancer, 80,000 die
of the disease – which is 4 in 5! And we appear to be so comfortable with such
perilous statistics?
As it is,
the health condition of the Nigerian hospitals appears to be worse than that of
the patients that attend them. A
Study of a 2015 report on Radiation and oncology services available in Nigeria
revealed that there were 5 Linear Machines and 3 Cobalt-60 Machines with only
four of them functional. The population of Nigerians served by a megavoltage
cancer therapy machine is over 33 million. In a population of about 200
million, there were just 30 radiation oncologists, 8 medical physicists, 18
Radiotherapy Technologists and 28 oncology nurses. These facilities and
personnel were found in few private hospitals and in some public tertiary
health centers. While the situation has not improved at all, thousands of
patients still queue for six months or above to go through a course of
radiotherapy service. Majority die in the process.
Do
Nigerians not deserve a better healthcare system than this sick one we have
today?
For how long will a nation refuse to show
empathy towards her poor and the sick – for how long do we want to remain a
callous nation? How can a nation who refuses to think about and care for her poor
and sick expect to prosper and attain greatness?
Again, for how long will our healthcare
facilities remain unequipped and sick?
Value for
Life
It is time for government at all levels to
wake up. The first job of true leadership in Nigeria is not security. It is
national re-orientation towards placing value on life. The first thing that God
did after he formed man with clay was not to protect the clay that he formed,
but to give life to it. Beyond adequate funding for Institutions, agencies,
departments in charge of disease control, we all must come to the place of
understanding the value of every single life, poor or rich.
To this end, cancer care services must be
brought to the primary healthcare level, where screening and treatment
facilities are made available. I believe it is possible that every Local
Government in Nigeria can have a well-equipped cancer diagnostic center. It is
possible for every state in Nigeria to have a functional comprehensive cancer
care center! Yeah; God has given us all the resources we need.
Time for
Knowledge, Unanimity
It is clear that the greatest weapon cancer
uses is ignorance. Should we expect to fight and conquer cancer, when all we do
is fight separately and in ignorance? Is it not the time to come together against
cancer and other diseases in this country?
When a citizen is in bondage of cancer or any
form of disease, shouldn’t we understand that the progress of every other
person and that of the larger society are also under arrest? When a tree is
sick, what man can see, pluck and eat of its fruits? The richest man on earth
cannot fight the cancer battle alone; talk less of a poor fellow down with
cancer!
For instance, I was alone with my poor farmer
– parents for 30 years in cancer den,
with help from no quarter. I survived by the mercy of God, but where are the
rest victims? If for instance I had
also died in the process, who would have known I ever existed, except my
immediate family?
Except we all come to the place of unity, to
the point where charity drives public resources towards helping every citizen
to live healthy life and gain full expression in regard to purpose for living,
cancer and other diseases will continue to prevail and kill majority of its
victims, not only among the poor, but also within the ranks of the rich and
mighty.
It is time to heal up our healthcare system through adequate equipping, thereby taking it to the next purposeful level. No one is safe until we all resolve to be fair to one another. Cancer or any other disease, we must fight together to conquer together.
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