MBARARA – Mbarara Regional Cancer Centre (MRCC) has Tuesday held stakeholders’ meeting on full operationalization at Mbarara University of Science & Technology (MUST).
A team from Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) has joined other stakeholders in Mbarara to devise sustainable interventions of operationalisation of MRCC.
Stakeholders include; UCI, MUST, Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital & Massacheuttes General Hospital.
This Centre which became operational in 2014 now boosts of a peadiatric service, adult service and Pharmaceutical services.
During the meeting, all stakeholders agreed to work together to make the centre fully operational to provide comprehensive services to people in the South Western region of the country.
At the moment, the centre serves patients from Western Uganda, Southern Uganda and neighbouring countries.
Other regional cancer centres earmarked are Arua, Mbale and Gulu.
According to UCI, there is a plan to make all these centres fully operational and provide comprehensive services to all Ugandans. This will increase access to cancer services in all regions.
MRCC is a public, specialized, tertiary care medical facility owned by the Uganda Ministry of Health. The facility is located along the Mbarara-Kabale Road, in the central business district of the city of Mbarara, on the campus of Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.
MRCC is a cancer treatment, research, and teaching center, affiliated with the Mbarara University School of Medicine and with the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, the teaching hospital for the medical school. MRCC was founded in 2017, by Professor Frederick Kayanja and Professor Tony Wilson.
The establishment of the centre was informed by the increased patient burden at Uganda Cancer Institute, where 4,500 to 6,000 new patients are registered annually. MRCC was registering about 3,000 new patients annually (approximately 9 patients daily), as of March 2018.