National Cancer Centre to open March
Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda has said the National Cancer Centre currently under construction in Lilongwe will be ready in March this year to provide full services to cancer patients.
She said in an interview that the concrete casting of the radiotherapy bunkers and roofing will be done by February.
“The concrete for this project is supposed to be done under specific weather conditions because it is a sensitive process. Our projection is that by March we should be opening for service,” said the minister
During a visit to the project site yesterday, workers were seen putting together reinforcement for the concrete roofing of the six radiotherapy bunkers that will enable the provision of specialised treatment.
The concrete casting was planned to start from January 29 this year.
The country’s first dedicated cancer treatment centre opened in April 2020 at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, but without the radiotherapy bunkers.
Delays to complete the project have seen the Malawi Government facing a $1 million (about K1 billion) bill annually for international referrals for specialist cancer treatment, mostly in India.
The ministry has been doing close monitoring with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the completion date was revised from December last year to March 2024.
In November 2021, Chiponda told Parliament that construction would be completed by January 2022. This was after the ministry had indicated in 2019 that the construction of bunkers would be completed by January 2020.
During a ground-breaking ceremony of the project in March in 2017, former president Peter Mutharika stated that the hospital would be completed before the end of 2018.
In a separate interview, health rights activist Maziko Matemba said it is good news that the centre is now showing a sign of completion after the deadline has been shifted forward many times.
He said there are over 500 patients annually on the patient’s referral list, most of whom are cancer patients.
