By Matṧeliso Phulane
The village health workers’ coordinator ‘Mantsane Lebitsa has appealed for financial support from the ministry of health and other sectors in order to attend to cancer patients without any reluctance.
Lebitsa made the appeal this week at the inauguration of the Senkatana Oncology Clinic, in Maseru, which is intended to apply chemotherapy along with awareness campaigns and screening to encourage early diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
She lamented that the village health workers have not received their payments for eight months now resulting in reluctance to help cancer patients. Village health workers are responsible for educating individuals and communities on health related issues, health promotion and disease prevention thus increasing health literacy.
“The main challenge is that village health workers do not get paid on time. Right now they have not received their payments for the whole eight months, but they are still expected to assist patients.
“Some of the patients stay in villages which are hard to reach and that forces the care giver to walk long distances or use their own money for transportation,” Lebitsa said.
She added that payment is not even enough to meet all their basic needs “because it is only M800 per months which comes after a long period of time. “
Lebitsa regretted that several attempts to request the ministry of health to pay their dues have fallen on dearth ears as village health workers struggle to make ends meet.
The village health workers are crying out for their pay which has not been forthcoming in the past eight months.
The ministry of health director general Dr ‘Nyane Letsie was thankful for an official opening of the facility as the first centre to offer cancer screening for the patients who suffer from breast cancer. It is to conduct chemotherapy and surgery where necessary.
“The Oncology Clinic is intended to relieve cancer patients as well as the government from expensive referrals to other countries such as South Africa and India,” she expressed.
She said for a patient’s referral, the government spends over M100 000 which is money that will be saved now that the Oncology Clinic is functional.
She added that all cancer types will be treated though for now only breast cancer treatment will be done while the government is preparing to have other machines to accommodate all cancer types.
Dr Letsie further recommended the government and its partners for making Basotho’s dream of having a cancer facility come true, saying it will accommodate every Mosotho for treatment.
She said besides having the equipment, they also managed to find an Oncologist, adding that there are more trained staff including village health workers. With the help of the National University of Lesotho (NUL) they will be able to research more about cancer types and how best they can be dealt with.
“I would really want to thank Briston Myers Squibb Foundation (BMSF) for their support in managing HIV/Aids and have now been assisting us in establishing the cancer centre.
“Again, I want to appreciate the hard work and commitment our health workers do to ensure that cancer patients are well taken care of. They always wake up at 5.00am to transfer the patients to Bloemfontein as well as admitting those who come from other districts,” ‘Nyane said.
The president of BMSF, John Damonti said BMSE have been working in Lesotho since 1999 when HIV/AIDS took its toll to devastate Lesotho, and since then they have had successful tasks done.
He said BMSF is committed to making the Senkatana Oncology Clinic a success, adding that they are pleased to note that Basotho are no longer dying of HIV and that should be the case with cancer.
He said they are now shifting the focus to fighting cancer to an extent that no one will be left behind.
The health ministry’s principal secretary Moliehi Ntene thanked BMSF for assisting the government in achieving its goal of having an Oncology Clinic.
She said the government remains committed to ensuring that cancer patients are well catered for hence the establishment of the clinic.
She therefore, pleaded with Basotho to fully support the ministry, saying there is still a long way ahead but a lot will be achieved with joint effort.
According to NUL preliminary research, general public know about cancer but only 40 percent know about screening and only seven percent of them come for screening.
There are also other research proposals conducted about lung cancer in order to know the journey about it and how it could be treated.
The role of NUL in the project is also to maintain cancer registry, which will allow to access information and do more research easily by knowing the exact number of people infected by cancer.
