Government releases new national cancer control plan

The government through the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) has said that they are set to roll out a new cancer control plan to enable Ugandans access cancer care throughout the country.

According to government, this has been reached after a thorough study of barriers curtailing people from accessing cancer care which has led to a high death rate especially amongst new cases.

Among the barriers which have led to wide disparities in cancer treatment are: gender norms, poverty and social economic factors such as transport as well as geographical divide and age.

Addressing the press in Kampala on Thursday, Catherine Namulindwa, the UCI spokesperson, said having noted such barriers to cancer care, the government chose to close the cancer care gap through a new national cancer control plan.

"In this, the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) plans to tackle the cancer challenge in Uganda by following seven pillars: health promotion and cancer prevention; early detection, diagnosis and treatment; palliative care; cancer survivorship; cancer surveillance and research, policy and advocacy and special populations that include refugees and albinos,” she said.

She revealed that expansion of cancer care will also be done through training and research capacity and also increasing on bed capacity from 120 to 365 bed capacity at UCI.

Namulindwa also pointed out that the the cancer clinical laboratory at Mulago hospital will be expanded to the level of a reference cancer laboratory in the EAC region.

Meanwhile, the public was also reminded that all care at the UCI is provided free of charge.