The Federal Ministry of Health Abuja has discovered a way to cut the cost of cancer treatment by 50% with the launch of Chemotherapy Access Treatment (CAP) Programme.
Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, the Minister of State for Health said that the programme would increase access to high quality essential cancer drugs and enable thousands of additional Nigerians to access care while launching the CAP at the National Hospital Abuja on Tuesday.
According to Mamora, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 60 Per cent of patients who get cancer in Nigeria will die adding that Nigeria records over 70,000 deaths due to cancer yearly.
He said that in spite of the statistics by the WHO, more than half of cancer patients in the country could not access treatment majorly because of the high cost in treatment. Mamora alleged some cancer drugs were out of stock in public hospitals forcing patients to obtain them from pharmacies where the prices were out of reach.
Mamora assured Nigerians that the programme would enable cancer patients in Nigeria to access lower-priced, high quality treatment at hospitals and pharmacies and reduce the burden of out-of-pocket payments.
The CAP is a public-private partnership between the federal ministry of health, Clinton health Access Initiative (CHAI), the American Cancer Society (ACS), Pfizer, World Wide Health Care and EMGE resources.
Mamora said: ‘This will enable Nigeria and other African governments to double the number of patients being treated with the same resources and reduce the catastrophic expenditure for patients paying out-of-pocket.
“This is by reducing complexity in the distribution prices, stabilizing prices, coordinating orders, streamlining registration of products and promoting the entry of international suppliers”
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The hospitals that would undergo this programme include: Ahmadu Bello university teaching hospital, Aminu Kano teaching hospital, Lagos university teaching hospital, National hospital Abuja.