Below is an extraction from a social media post by one of Zimbabwe’s leading Radiotherapist, Adriana Rutendo Mafukidze Zanga.
I can’t sleep. 2.41 a.m. I need help. I keep seeing those angry faces when I close my eyes. ANGRY CANCER PATIENTS
They literally would have beaten us up again yesterday as we dismissed them again this week without getting their radiation treatment. The machine has been going down every afternoon due to heating issues among other issues. Well they have every right to be angry. Some of them by 4a.m they will be waiting on the queue. Reminds me of the biblical stirring of the waters and whoever is first to jump in.. Some have come back from as far as Bulawayo. They just want to complete their daily treatment sessions and go back home to their families.
Yesterday they were shouting at us that when we miss treatment you should prioritise us the next day. But it doesn’t work like that.. it’s more complicated than that. We have to put in the children first. Then there are the elderly, then patients on stretchers and wheelchairs.. You see if all machines were up and running well we would be giving them appointments from 7a.m to 5pm but now they all converge at the department at once since it’s the early bird that catches the worm – if it does that day.
It’s 30 October and it’s been breast cancer awareness month. There’s been pink everywhere. Adverts for walks, runs, free breast screening. Folks wearing pink ribbons on their lapels.
I’ve not had the energy to be part of these cancer walks or fancy golf tournaments for years now.. What’s even the point of screening people when they can’t get treated? What’s the point of raising awareness when at the end of the chain I have to dismiss the patients because the linear accelerator keeps breaking down.
When the community is ready we need to talk about how there is loss of treatment benefit when cancer patients miss even one session.. I will stop now. Hopefully next October, when organisations and corporates have sponsored walks and marathons they will consider the state of radiotherapy services in our community.”
