KNH Discharges  60 Cancer Patients To Create Room For Coronavirus Patients

About 60 cancer patients had to leave Kenyatta National Hospital to give room for the treatment of Coronavirus patients.

According to a nurse at KNH, the facility sent the cancer patients home to protect them from contracting the deadly coronavirus.

“The management says we should not expose cancer patients to coronavirus, so we are rationing treatment,” the nurse told a local daily

KNH said that most of the cancer patients who were sent home were beginners who were yet to begin their radiotherapy but due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the sessions have been suspended indefinitely.

The KNH Staff at the oncology unit said that patients who were already on radiotherapy will continue with the treatment but the facility will decide who will get the life-saving therapy and who would miss.

KNH is the only Public Hospital in the country with three radiotherapy machines that serve up to 200 cancer patients daily.

However, there are Private Hospitals that offer radiotherapy sessions but they are very expensive and not affordable to some patients. Patients thus opt for KNH as the cheapest option.

KNH is also among the facilities well equipped to handle coronavirus patients who are not supposed to mix with other people until they recover.

In order to avoid the spread of coronavirus to other people (especially cancer patients who are seen to be more vulnerable if they contract the infection), KNH decided to suspend some treatment sessions.

However, experts say that suspending treatment of cancer patients is not advisable as they would develop more problems like including tumor progression and even shorter survival time.

Facilities offering crucial treatments like for cancer patients are therefore advised to open the sessions during the weekends.

“Most centers work 8 am to 5 pm and some do not operate on weekends. But providers should look for more creative ways to ensure cancer services are not delayed,” said Vice-chair of the Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance of Kenya David Makumi.

“You can operate maybe 12 hours a day and also open on weekends so that patients are spread out and not crowded.”

Meanwhile, Kenya has 16 confirmed cases of Coronavirus but the Government said only one patient was not in a stable condition.

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