By Dr. Ntombi Muchuchuti (PhD) | Executive Director
The distance between services for children with cancer determines a lot of things, among them, the treatment outcomes. Many children with cancer arrive at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals from all over the country at advanced stages of illnesses, and treatment outcomes are usually poor. Some of the children never make it to services due to the distance and lack of transport fares to access childhood cancer services. Kidzcan has been providing money for bus fares for children with cancer and their parents/caregivers for many years.
However in 2016, especially the past three months, cash availability has been so much of a challenges hence many children missed their reviews and their treatment. During the period under review, Kidzcan provided 73 children with transport fares from all parts of the county to access cancer services which for many reasons, are still centralised. Kidzcan also registered a total of 124 patients; of these 61% were males whilst 39% were females. These patients were registered from all the ten provinces with Harare province having the highest number of new registrations. Harare had a total of 29 patients followed by Mashonaland West with 18; Masvingo 14; Midlands and Mashonaland Central with 12 each; Mashonaland East 11; Matabeleland South and Manicaland with 8 each; Bulawayo 7 and Matabeleland North recorded a total of 5. The 23.39% new registrations from Harare province, is owed to the competitive advantage of the proximity to services hence the positive health seeking behaviour.
When the children arrive in Harare, Kidzcan continues to pay $15 per patient everytime they require specialised services which are being outsourced for various reasons. This is owed to the fact that Kidzcan does not have an ambulance or safe transport to ferry children in between different services provides. The challenges that children face in view of transportation cannot be imagined. An 11th month old little girl was transferred to Harare (from Matabelaland North). She had an advanced cancer (rhabdomyosarcoma). The mother took about 3 days to arrive at Parirenyatwa hospital. Unfortunately the child died after a week of hospitalisation. Due to the level of lack the 23 year old mother opted for a pauper's burial for her little girl.
I came from Dandanda (872km from Harare), and I have no relatives here in Harare. We have 2 more children aged 6 and 2 years, and I have no means of transporting the body of my baby home. My husband is 26 years and does not work. We don’t have a cell phone, I cannot even notify them of the outcomes of the disease process. If possible, may I leave the body so that she can be buried by the government. I will tell them (in-laws) of the outcomes when I get home.
Kidzcan offered to carry the body to Dandanda and it took the officers about 15 hours (arriving at 2 am) to get there. The team got lost 3 times and once were rescued by the police that patrolled the road. The mother could not remember the way home, in fact she did not know the way home because she had never seen the way during the day since she was born. The bus that they board leaves the village at 2 am to Bulawayo every morning and arrives back from Bulawayo at 10 pm, hence, travelling at night made it impossible for the young mother to remember or know how the area looked like during the day.
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