Nsambya Hospital Cancer Center
The Nsambya Hospital Cancer Center, also Rotary–Centenary Bank Cancer Center, is a private, faith-based, specialized, tertiary care medical facility, under construction in Uganda. When completed as expected, the center will offer radiotherapy, chemotherapy, oncology pharmacy, cancer rehabilitation and undergraduate and postgraduate oncology medical and nursing education starting in 2027.
Location
The centre is located within St. Francis Hospital Nsambya, situated on Nsambya Hill, approximately, southeast of the central business district of Kampala, Uganda's capital city.Overview
NHCC is an oncology diagnostic and treatment unit within Nsambya Hospital, a private, Catholic faith-based tertiary care, teaching hospital with bed capacity in excess of 540, as of August 2024. The centre began as a department of the hospital offering gynecological screening for cervical cancer in 2009. In 2010 services were expanded to include surgical screening for breast cancer. In May 2011, an oncologist was hired and comprehensive oncology services were established. Services include laboratory, pharmacy, chemotherapy, and oncology rehabilitative services. Up to 2027, when radiotherapy services are expected to start, patients who need radiation therapy have to travel to foreign locations to receive those services, or seek the services of Uganda Cancer Institute in Mulago, which is congested and overcrowded.Background
Uganda is an East African country, with a population of about 45.9 million as of the 2024 national housing census. The most prevalent cancers in Uganda as of 2022 were for women: Cervical cancer Breast cancer Stomach cancer Esophageal cancer and Liver cancer. At the same time, the leading cancers in men in Uganda were Prostate cancer Kaposi's sarcoma Liver cancer and Lymphoma.NHCC was established in 2011, to complement and relieve the Uganda Cancer Institute. It is also intended to reduce the increasing number of private patients in Uganda seeking oncology services in overseas locations. In 2021, NHCC began constructing underground bunkers to house two linear accelerator machines so that the center can start offering radiotherapy services. The construction of the bunkers is budgeted at USh4 billion.
In 2012, Nsambya Hospital, with financial support from the Rotary Club of Kampala, Centenary Bank, Crown Beverages and other donors, began the construction of the 36-bed, dedicated oncology center at a cost of Sh1.5 billion. The completed dedicated unit was handed over to the hospital in July 2015.