The Steve Biko Academic Hospital CEO Dr. Mathabo Mathebula says the hospital in Pretoria is one of the few public health facilities in Gauteng that offers the best cancer treatment.
Mathebula was addressing the Human Rights Commission delegates that visited the hospital after the media allegations that the cancer facilities were on the verge of collapsing.
She refuted the allegations suggesting that the radiation oncology is non-functional at the hospital and that the health facility was turning away patients.
Mathebula says besides the disputed radiation therapy the hospital has the modern state of the art chemotherapy, nuclear medicine immunotherapy and hormone therapy for cancer patients.
She says, “Radio therapy is only one of many treatment modalities of cancer. We have got chemotherapy, we have got nuclear medicine. We have got surgical treatment and there is also hormonal manipulation for cancer.”
“Chemotherapy is given to most patients because it goes to the entire body. You get drip or some drink by mouth. It goes to the entire body of course it has got serious side effects. We have seen people loosing hair and the likes. And people feeling very sick. Then we have got what we call radio therapy where a machine treats directly where the cancer is,” says Mathebula.
WATCH RELATED VIDEO BELOW:
