PRESS STATEMENT
BY HONOURABLE SYLVIA T. MASEBO MP – MINISTER OF HEALTH
WEDNESDAY 17 MAY 2023
Zambia confirms on an annual basis 13,800 new cancer cases. Of these, 3,000 new cases are seen at the Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH) which is the only fourth level, national referral specialised teaching hospital for cancer patients in Zambia. Of the estimated 3,000 new cases, 1,600 require specialised treatment of cancer using x-rays or similar forms of radiation. This is called radiotherapy. Currently, the CDH is the only hospital that offers comprehensive cancer treatment including radiotherapy in our country.
There has been plans to decentralise radiotherapy to all provinces since 2012 but because of limited fiscal space previous governments have not been able to implement this. In 2022 this was revamped and 25 million US dollars allocated through the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and GRZ to co-finance the construction and equipping of Livingstone and Ndola treatment centres. The procurement processes of these two centres is now complete and the award for the Ndola treatment centre, which we will be witnessing today, is now ready for signing.
For your information we have old obsolete machine for radiotherapy and imaging at our current Cancer Diseases Hospital. This government has made budgetary provisions to replace all these obsolete machines. This process will commence very soon. The Ministry of Health will ensure that as these machines are being replaced at CDH and the new centre is being constructed in Ndola, provisions are made to ensure that treatment interruptions with radiotherapy are minimised.
I would like to inform the nation on the progress we have made on procurement of medicines and medical supplies for the health posts, health centres and district hospitals that are called health centre kits. These medicines and medical supplies in these kits contribute to 80% of the medicines required from health posts to district hospitals. A team from Ministry of Health and ZAMMSA are in India conducting a pre-shipment inspection. The Ministry through ZAMMSA has procured 42 000 Health Centre Kits which is a one year supply of our requirements. I am informed that on 21 June 2023 we expect 50 Kits to arrive as a signal to commence the shipments. Another 7000 kits will arrive in June and after this the kits will be delivered every 2 months.
The current status of essential medicines and medical supplies stand at 42.2%. ZAMMSA has awarded contracts for essential medicines and medical supplies at approximately valued at ZMW 308 million to last for 6 months, and deliveries will commence this month.
ZAMMSA has also awarded contracts for Anesthetics medicines, Cancer Medicines, Dental Commodities, Orthopedic Trauma and Maxillofacial commodities. These are one year supplies.
ZAMMSA has further initiated other bulk procurements to Egypt and through United Nations agencies such as UNICEF, UNDP and UNPFA and expecting shorter delivery lead times to address the critical shortages.
The government is committed to improve and stabilize the provision and availability of essential medicines throughout the country so that we have over 70% availability of medicines and supplies at all levels of health care.
God Bless Zambia