Following a media backlash, Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) has banned outpatients from sleeping on verandas as they wait for treatment.
Recently, the media published stories indicating that hundreds of cancer patients were sleeping on the floor and verandas of the Uganda Cancer Institute as they wait for their next appointment due to the lack of funds to go back and return the next day in the morning.
Now, in a brief memo published Thursday, UCI says that it has established a care home for patients who have nowhere to stay in Kampala during the course of their treatment and care at the institute.
Dr. Nixon Niyonzima, the head of research and training, says that they have built a patient’s hostel at Mulago hill with the capacity of accommodating more than 160 cancer patients free of charge as they wait for their next appointment.
Dr. Niyonzima says that currently, the institute has 120 beds, adding that they have received funding from the government to expand to a 365-bed hospital and construction work is ongoing.
Dr. Jackson Orem the Executive Director of Uganda Cancer institute told journalists at the government-owned Uganda Media Center on Thursday that 85 percent of the patients visiting UCI come from upcountry, which means that they have to navigate the social and economic barriers and hence end up staying at the cancer institute.
He revealed that they have erected temporally shelters at Mulago hill where these people can stay as they wait for their next appointment.
He adds that there has been increased cancer awareness in the country from 3 percent in 2003, which has piled pressure on the institute because of the increased cancer services.
An estimated 33000 people are diagnosed with cancer in Uganda annually. However, only about 7400 people make it to the cancer institute because of the rural-urban divide. Patients in rural areas can’t easily access UCI in Kampala.
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