Kenyatta National Hospital is the only public hospital with radiotherapy equipment in the country serving all the 47 counties.

Late last year, the machine broke down affecting many patients who were waiting on the queue.
The hospital management alluded the failure to the patient overload where it would handle about 100 patients daily rather than the requisite 50.

One of the two radiotherapy machines at Kenyatta National Hospital has broken down again affecting about 50 cancer patients, according to Head of Cancer Treatment Centre Dr Eliud Njuguna.

Head of Cancer Treatment Centre Dr Eliud Njuguna said contractors are fixing the radiotherapy machine that broke down on Tuesday.

This means that cancer patients will have to wait until March for the ‘one-dollar-a-month’ drugs promised by the government.

Dr. Njuguna said that the machine should be ready by Friday. “The worst case scenario would be is if they can’t fix it and we have to call the engineer from Tunisia which may take a couple more days,” Dr Njuguna said even affordable medicine remains out of reach.

A new cancer machine—the Linear Accelerator— is expected to take the first three patients Thursday, Dr Njuguna said.

This breakdown will also affect diabetes, hypertension and heart patients who were banking on the deal signed by the Ministry of Health and a pharmaceutical company, Novartis.

Last year, Novartis signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health to provide cheaper drugs for the non-communicable diseases.

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