The foremost hospital in Egypt that treats cancer patients, that of Cairo University’s National Tumour Institute (NTI), is in the throes of a critical financial crisis threatening its very ability to continue with its work. Salah Abdel-Hadi, dean of the NTI, says the EGP35 million in State funds allocated to the hospital are insufficient to cover its expenses, and has called upon businessmen and wealthy individuals to contribute towards funding the institute. He says last year’s expenses amounted to some EGP120 million, meaning that community donations are the effective backbone of the institute’s budget. Yet, Dr Abdel-Hadi says, the medical equipment needs to be upgraded, a process which requires huge sums of money that exceed the donations which are mainly given on seasonal basis.
Shortage of beds
The hospital manager, Ashraf Zaghloul, said that, after the establishment of the new “57357” cancer hospital for children, it was expected that children undergoing treatment at the NTI would be transferred to the new hospital. But this did not happen, he said, and child patients still occupy 100 beds at the NTI. This puts NTI under huge pressure since renovations that are currently taking place there have already reduced the number of available beds from 560 to 300. The NTI needs EGP150 million to repair and renovate the buildings. Dr Zaghloul says 20,000 new cancer patients come to the NTI every year, five per cent of whom are under 18 years old. Each patient who enters the surgical department charges the hospital nearly EGP20,000, and the expenses could reach EGP200,000 on undergoing chemotherapy. Twenty per cent of cancer patients are on waiting lists, while private clinics take in nearly 160 cancer cases daily.
Patients in corridors
The no-charge section is on the fourth floor, where patients suffer all manner of pain and indignity. Patients can be seen lying in the corridors and stairs because all the beds are full. One cancer victim, Essam Mahmoud, said he had undertaken a long journey to Cairo in order to have treatment at the NTI. “NTI staff handle patients in a degrading way, despite the intolerable pain they already suffer.” Mahmoud says cancer patients often spend every penny they have on their long journey for treatment, and at the end they feel like vagabonds as they wait their turn on the long list of people expecting treatment. He said it was a disgrace to see small children covered with flies lying helplessly crammed together on beds without mattresses while under treatment.
Fatma Mahmoud is a mother who regularly brings her son, a cancer sufferer, from Sohag to be treated at the NTI. She says they often stand for hours on the stairs waiting their turn, and when the Watani asked her why she did not take her son to be treated in the new children’s hospital she said she had tried but been refused because her son had already been under treatment in the old hospital. The new hospital only admitted new cases, she claimed.