A few years ago, kidney patients covered by the community health insurance scheme, Mutuelle de Sante, were in serious dilemma; undergoing dialysis treatment was not covered by their insurance.

To make matters worse, the procedure was prohibitive. A single session could cost anything from Rwf 100,000 and Rwf 120,000, so without insurance to ease the burden, many patients succumbed to their illness.

Today, Mutuelle de Sante has been merged by RAMA and, hopefully, a possible solution is at the doorstep.

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, renal failure and heart disease have been on the rise for the last few years. Their treatment is costly and that could explain why it did not attract as much attention as communicable diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS in the past.

Now that has all changed; there are dialysis machines spread across the country, people have been encouraged to practise sports regularly to reduce the risk of heart disease and now it is time for cancer patients to have a glimmer of hope.

The country’s first radiotherapy cancer treatment centre is set to open its doors at Rwanda Military Hospital, Kanombe next year. A report published in 2015 pointed out that of the 4,860 NCD patients hospitalised by the Kigali University Teaching Hospital that year, 6.5 per cent had cancer.

One can imagine the suffering cancer patients who were not lucky to receive treatment outside the country went through.

Next year that page will have turned as RMH radiotherapy programme aims to become a regional cancer treatment destination and dig into the medical tourism pie enjoyed by countries such as Kenya, India or South Africa. Now, that is smart investment.