Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
IN a significant effort to enhance cancer treatment in the country, the government has allocated over US$30.8 million for the procurement of advanced cancer treatment machines and medications.
The funds earmarked for cancer treatment were generated from the sugar tax introduced in the 2024 budget.
This move reflects the government’s commitment to improving the country’s capacity to manage non-communicable diseases, which have become a major public health concern.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Aspect Maunganidze says the allocated funds will specifically be used to purchase radiotherapy machines.
“You are aware that cancer treatment comes through radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, in addition, surgery is also useful, however, the big gap that has existed since 2018 has been on radiotherapy machines,” he said.
“We had to seek the relevant approvals, especially from the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, you might be aware that the radiotherapy machines are high-tech machines that are all imported and quite expensive. We went on a deliberate effort to do due diligence, first, we asked for bids to come in so we would weed out briefcase tenderpreneurs out of the equation, and in that bid, we got from established manufacturers and agents of those manufacturers quotations for the various pieces of equipment that we need,” he said.
“We came up with US$30.8 million from the estimates that we got after the market survey and the due diligence. We could tell that we would be able to acquire about 10 to 12 pieces of equipment, the bulk of which are the big linear accelerators which have over the last seven years been breaking down, and, we have two major centres for cancer treatment in Zimbabwe where these radiotherapy machines are. That is Parirenyatwa group of hospitals and Mpilo.
“Over the last seven years, there have been frequent breakdowns and this is very expensive for our country, if you look at the disease burden we have had so many cancer patients. Of late non-communicable diseases become a new epidemic and cancer leads in those.
“We know that prevention is more important than cure and it’s a two-pronged approach in terms of cancer treatment, so we put a lot of effort in preventing common cancers and you might be aware that the First Lady has been on a drive to make sure that young girls are prevented from getting HPV, which is a risk factor for cervical cancer. Most of these machines are used to then treat cervical cancer when it develops,” Dr Maunganidze said.
“Among the pieces of equipment are linear accelerators, or what we commonly call radiotherapy, the cancer machines. But you also have CT scans for diagnosis of the cancer. In addition, CT simulators to be able to simulate the treatment plans, which will be then executed by the linear accelerators.
“In addition, there are types of cancers that are quite inaccessible, and where it’s not advised, to use the common radiotherapy machines, like brain tumors, where we then use the commonly known term of gamma knife. This is a piece of equipment which has not existed in Zimbabwe before.”
In addition to the equipment, the government plans to establish smaller cancer treatment centres.
“We already have five cancer machines which I have already alluded to that they have been having frequent breakdowns. We managed to have two of those machines up and running, so currently there is some cancer treatment happening at Parirenyatwa. We are still battling with the ones at Mpilo.
“What we have decided to do and taking cognisance of the fact that cancer treatment is highly specialised, you need to build teams around the machines. It is not just about machines. At Parirenyatwa and Mpilo, we have managed to build these teams around those machines. These are oncologists, medical physicists, specialists, radiographers, and radiologists who deal with the machines. So as we roll out beyond the two institutions, we also want to make sure we put in place the supportive staff that we have to make cancer treatment possible away from those institutions.
“What we are looking at is once we acquire the new equipment, some of the equipment will then need to be taken out from the Parirenyatwa system and we establish smaller centers, particularly Gweru because of its central location and Victoria Chitepo Hospital in Mutare. So those are part of the next phase and we will combine the new equipment and the decommissioned equipment to make sure that that also happens,” he added.
The procurement process is expected to take around nine months, with the installation and commissioning of the equipment to follow.
The investment is a response to the growing cancer burden in Zimbabwe, where non-communicable diseases have become a major epidemic.
