ABUJA – (Federal Ministry of Health Report) – The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole (Prof) has said that the Radiotherapy Centre in the National Hospital, Abuja will commence treatment to the general public in January, 2019.
The Minister made this known recently, while inspecting the Cancer Centre Extension Project and a newly installed second cancer equipment which was donated by SNEPCO Nigeria limited, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as part of her social responsibility to Nigerians.
The new equipment which is worth more than One Million Dollars has the capacity to treat at least a hundred patients a day, putting the total number of patients that could be treated at the centre at two-hundred (200) when the two machines at the centre are fully in use.
The installation of this second equipment, according to the Minister has made the centre to become the only cancer hospital to run two of such cancer machines in Africa. He noted that with this feat achieved and the treatment to be given comparable to what was given anywhere in the world, he is optimistic that Nigerians would go abroad for cancer treatment only by choice and not a necessity.
He promised that the centre would receive a PEI/CT machine (an imaging device for cancer diagnosis and treatment), adding that the cost of treatment at the hospital would depend on the type of cancer, but the Government would keep revising it to make it affordable.
Adewole indicated that it has been the dream of the Federal Government to put in place a world – class centre and make it a fore-runner to other countries. He insisted that Government is determined to build one of such centre at each of the six geopolitical zones of the country, apart from the nine other cancer centres located across the country.
Speaking on the preparedness of the hospital for the expected influx of patients already thronging the centre, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the National Hospital, Jaff Momoh (Dr) informed that the centre was equipped with high calibres of medical personnel who have been trained on cancer treatment and management.
