A leading hospital in the Middle East, the Saudi-German Hospital in Dubai, has expressed its desire to help Nigeria win the fight against cancer.

The hospital's Head of Oncology, Dr. Rajeev Kaushal, who made this known in a chat, after a meeting between the hospital’s representatives and stakeholders in the health sector, said: "According to World Health Organisation's recent statistics, between 102,000 and 120,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer each year in Nigeria. It is disappointing that out of these figures, about 72, 000 patients are lost to the scourge. This is mainly due to lack of state-of-the-art cancer treatment and management facilities in the country, lack of sufficient public awareness, and lack of a necessary political will to build quality hospitals and treatment centres where citizens can access cancer services affordably.

"These were the issues discussed with our Nigerian partners, and going by the outcome of our meeting, it may take about three to five years to set up facilities across the country that would address the deficit in health infrastructure for cancer treatment and management.

"But in the interim, we have agreed to set up a cancer referral centre. We have also made arrangement for our medical experts to fly into Abuja from Dubai to conduct special screening for patients, who are having symptoms or suspicions about cancer. Against that background, if there are confirmation of cases, patients can be flown to Dubai for subsidised medical treatments.”

He added: "This is just a short-term measure. In that, the Saudi-German Group in collaboration with our Nigerian partners will soon be setting-up a $30m state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre in Abuja."

The hospital’s International Patient Affairs Advisor, Semira Dikbas, said as a first contact person of the hospital, she was always ready to give the best to patients at all times, especially in the areas of  hospitality and logistics.
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