A Kenyan hospital, the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUN), will work with the Ugandan government to provide as many as 400 cancer patients with free treatment.
The hospital said it would do all it could to help and encouraged others to do the same.
The 400 cancer patients from Uganda will be going to Kenya since their country’s only radiotherapy machine broke down leaving thousand others at risk of missing potential life-saving treatment.
Uganda’s government has said it will cover the travel and other costs for the 400 going to the Nairobi hospital.
The private, not-for-profit hospital in the Kenyan capital has two radiotherapy units and six radiation oncologists.
Radiotherapy treatment can be expensive – and most patients in Uganda are unable to afford to pay for the treatment.
“We are committed to working with the Government of Uganda to help save the lives of cancer patients in need of treatment while it works to re-establish its radiation therapy capacity,” said AKUH-Nairobi chief executive officer Shawn Bolouki.
“Our values as an institution dictate nothing less. While we can only treat a small fraction of those requiring care, given our resources and the tremendous need that exists, we will do all we can to help, and we encourage others to follow our lead.”
Patient-related logistics are being discussed with the relevant authorities.
The treatments will be paid for by Aga Khan University’s (AKU) Patient Welfare Programme, which is funded by the hospital and augmented by individual and corporate donors and provides subsidised medical care to needy patients.
The Ugandan government has also agreed to pay for the 400 patients’ accommodation and food as well as for those of a relative or friend if an attendant is needed.
The government says it has purchased a new radiotherapy machine and it should be up and running in six months, once a special bunker has been built to house the radioactive equipment at Mulago Hospital in Kampala.
Other treatments are still available in Uganda, but the cancer institute at Mulago Hospital says that three-quarters of the 44,000 new cancer patients in Uganda last year needed radiotherapy.
Patients from Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan are also referred to Mulago Hospital for radiotherapy.
