Cancer patients in Nigeria are still finding it difficult to access the N1.4 billion treatment fund made available by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2019.
Recall that the government in 2019, 2020 and 2021 approved the sum of N1.4 billion for six teaching hospitals across the country to carry out treatment on cancer patients who could not afford the money.
After three years of this initiative, patients who fall into breast, prostrate and cervix cancers categories are yet to benefit from it.
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Narrating the untold hardship cancer patients have been going through since the fund was approved three years ago, Mrs Gloria Orji, president of the Network of Persons Impacted by Cancer in Nigeria, (NEPICIN), wrote on her Facebook:
“THE CANCER HEALTH FUND
“The Health Federation of Nigeria in 2017, during the National Health Dialogue conference held in Abuja reached a decision to establish a catastrophic health fund to cater for indigent cancer patients. This was aimed at reducing financial burden for cancer patients thereby reducing the number of deaths from cancer recorded annually. This was actualized and in 2019, when over 700 million naira was approved in the national budget for its implementation. In 2020, over 200 million naira was approved and in 2021, over 500 million was approved. A total of 1.4 billion.
“The cancer patient community was overjoyed and we eagerly looked forward to this fund helping us to pull through our treatments. 3 years down the line, we are still waiting. No one has been able to access it. We asked questions, made enquiries and was told the criteria to qualify for the fund is “guarded so that patients will not abuse it”
“The funds managers seem not to acknowledge the fact that the funds is not given to the patient as cash but is lodged in the hospital’s account. I wonder how it can be abused.
“Cancer patients are asking to go through painful treatment so that we can stand a chance to live. We are begging to take chemotherapy, to become bald, to throw up, to have diarrhea, to lose parts of our body, to go under the knife, to get burnt by the radiotherapy machines and to endure pain and pain and more pain.
“I wonder how going through all these would lead to abuse of the CHF. The Federal Ministry of Health should know this. No one wants to endure the treatment. We only need to…”
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