Harare,  (New Ziana)-The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care has called for the decentralisation of cancer treatment facilities to district hospitals for better management of the disease.

In a report released this week in the National Assembly following a tour of the country’s six central hospitals, the Committee noted that most of the facilities have inadequate infrastructure compared to district hospitals, hence the push to decentralize cancer treatment to these centers, which are better resources.

“The committee noted that at both Mpilo and Parirenyatwa Central Hospitals, critical radiotherapy machines had been non-functional since 2021. At Parirenyatwa, one of the two brachytherapy machines was down due to the exhaustion of Cobalt 60 radioactive sources, needing to be replenished,” it said.

“Additionally, the linear accelerators, essential for targeted cancer treatments, had been non-functional for the past two years, severely impacting the hospital’s ability to provide comprehensive cancer care. At Mpilo Central Hospital, the situation was similarly dire, with only 7 out of 14 renal treatment machines operational, reducing the hospital’s capacity to provide necessary dialysis treatments.”

The committee also discovered that the mammogram machine at Mpilo Hospital for breast cancer screening was out of service, thereby halting vital early detection processes for breast cancer.

“Further to that, the mobile X-ray unit at Mpilo was also down, causing significant delays in surgical procedures for children, who require timely diagnostic imaging for accurate and effective treatment. More so, although the laboratory services were fairly equipped with essential diagnostic tools, they suffered from an erratic supply and availability of key reagents,” it said.

Cancer has become one of Zimbabwe’s major killer diseases with cervical, breast and prostate cancers topping the list, and unfortunately, 80 percent of the patients delay seeking medical treatment.

New Ziana