Mozambique: Minister promises to restore radiotherapy services this week – O País

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Mozambique: Minister promises to restore radiotherapy services this week – O País

2:52 CAT | 03 Dec 2024

Photo: O País

Minister of Health says that the maintenance contract of the country’s only radiotherapy machine, which has been out of order for nine months, was too expensive and it had therefore been decided to source a cheaper maintenance company. The Minister also attributes the delay on maintenance works to the post-election protests.

Mozambique’s only public service radiotherapy machine has been out of order for about nine months, to the detriment of about 50 patients per day, seeking treatment of various types of cancer.

On Monday, the government went public with the reasons for such a long delay in restoring the service.

“The radiotherapy machine at Maputo Central Hospital is an extremely advanced piece of equipment, but at the same time we were finding the costs of its regular, routine maintenance unsustainable. What we decided was that we should find another way and another type of company that would perform the maintenance at reduced cost. We contacted several companies and two companies showed interest in the maintenance process with costs ranging from, I won’t say the amounts for ethical reasons, but we reduced the current maintenance costs by more than 30%,” the minister of health explained.

With the maintenance contracts agreed, Minister Tiago says that the only reason the machine is not yet back in operation is the post-election protests.

“Unfortunately, as a result of the protests, the team that was supposed to come to do the assessment did not come. Both teams did not come, citing this instability problem. We believe that the teams will be here in the first week of December, and will ensure regular maintenance at a lower cost [for the radiotherapy equipment],” he said.

Armindo Tiago however says that this breakdown should not be seen as “the end of the world”.

READ: The only radiotherapy machine in Mozambique is out of order; cancer patients undergoing‘alternative treatment ‘- Notícias

“Radiotherapy is just one way of treating cancer. There are other ways of treating cancer, including chemotherapy and, eventually, when the machine is out of order, we do the same thing for patients who have a high recommendation to undergo radiotherapy that we did when we did not have the radiotherapy machine: we transfer patients for treatment abroad. This is what we are doing to this day. In other words, the alternatives we had before the radiotherapy service was installed are the ones we are using today to meet the needs of patients,” he explained.

In addition to the matter concerning repairing the radiotherapy machine, the minister of health also spoke of future initiatives including making radiotherapy services available in the country’s central and northern regions.

Source: O País