The Health Committee of Parliament says it is worried with continued delay in completing construction of the first-ever National Cancer Treatment Centre at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe. 

The discontent follows a fact-finding tour which the Committee conducted to find out reasons behind the delayed completion of the centre which is jointly funded by Malawi Government and OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID).

Chairperson of the Committee Matthews Ngwale told YFM Online that it is worrying to observe that the center, which was supposed to be completed by September 2019, is yet to be completed and commence its intended functions.

He wondered: “We can say openly here that our visit today has made almost every Committee member very angry, what we have seen here is very sad and disappointing.

“We have been told about progress being made on the bankers which were delaying the whole process, we come here we find that the bankers are as they were dug at first, absolutely nothing has happened.”

Bankers are shielded thick wall environment [building] where the machines which emit radiation are.

Commenting on the delay, the Hospital’s Director Dr Jonathan Ngoma said the hospital is still recording high number of cancer-related deaths.

“We have a lot of patients who need radiotherapy and very few are the ones who can be managed to be sent abroad because the budget for referral is not that much and most of them [patients] are dying,” Dr Ngoma said.

In its response, the Ministry of Health through its Head of Infrastructure Dr Sanderson Kuyeli said the construction of the bankers delayed because the initial design was condemned by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

He said: “Around 2018, when the inspectors from IAEA came, they discovered that our design was not ideal as far as issues of radiation are concerned, so they condemned our design and we had to stop the process of the bankers, the rest of the project continued.”

When completed, the cancer center whose construction started in 2017, is expected to reduce overseas treatment, save forex and local capacity building.

Delays in paying consultants due to foreign exchange shortage, losing some of trained expertise due to delays in completing the project and cost and times overruns are major challenges derailing the development.