ADDIS ABABA - Saint Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College Caner Treatment Center said it has provided over 16,000 patients with cancer treatment during the just ended Ethiopian fiscal year.

Approached by the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) Saint Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College Caner Treatment Center Head and Cancer Specialist Mohammed Ibrahim (MD) said that the center provided cancer treatment to some 16,600 patients over the just ended Ethiopian fiscal year. Of the patients, 15,000 were outpatients and the remaining inpatient ones.

Talking about the construction of cancer complex, he noted that the completion of the complex would highly contribute a lot towards overcoming sector barriers. Currently, it has been providing treatment services with 20 beds for inpatients and three rooms for outpatients. It has been focusing on finalizing the construction of complex to fill gaps, he said.

"Lack of treatment space, shortage of radiotherapy equipment and inpatients treatment beds as well as lack of different machine in the center are among the challenges. It needs some 120 chemo machines as per World Health Organization's standard and it also requires one cancer chemo machine for one million people," he added.

Hence, to make this real, it demands s the involvement of private sector, he underscored.

Furthermore, the most of the patients who come to center are breast cancer patients. In the future, it has planned to provide better and technologically supported services in collaboration with other health institutions, it was learnt.