Abuja – The House of Representatives, on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to transfer cancer management programme to an agency.
This followed a motion by Rep. Mohammed Usman (Kaduna-APC) brought under matters of urgent public importance.
Moving the motion, Usman expressed concern at the inadequacy of cancer management centres across the nation, and stressed the need for the matter to be urgently addressed to save lives.
He noted that cancer patients in Nigeria were suffering as a result of inadequate treatment in hospitals.
According to him, the only centre at the National Hospital, Abuja, is not working as expected.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
He insisted that the issue must be addressed, pointing out that 100 Nigerians per every 100,000 die from the disease.
The motion was unanimously adopted by members, who called for urgent intervention through the provision of state-of-the-art equipment to diagnose and treat the ailment.
They urged the Federal Government to establish cancer treatment centres in the six geo-political zones.
The house also asked the Federal Ministry of Health to immediately review the National Health Insurance Scheme to integrate cancer treatment and carry out cancer sensitisation.
It also urged the ministry and other relevant bodies to train and retrain specialists in cancer management in Nigeria to enable them provide adequate care to patients.
(NAN)
