Here's where you can be screened, treated for breast cancer

The Ministry of Health through  Breast Cancer Screening and Early Diagnosis Action Plan (2021-2025) recommends women aged 25-34 to undertake clinical breast examination every one to three years. This examination would facilitate early detection of cancerous tumours. They are removed before they advance to metastatic cancer, which is the cancer that has left the breast and invaded other organs of the body.

Different levels of public hospitals provide varying cancer packages from essential, middle-level to comprehensive.

Here is information on services provided at each level of hospital. 

Of importance to note is that referral hospitals only attend to patients referred from lower hospitals. As such, a walk-in breast cancer patient at Kenyatta National Hospital will be unattended without a referral letter from Level 3, Level 4 or Level 5 hospital.

Level 1: Community

This can be the medical camps or community health outreaches.

Level 2: Dispensary

These are the hospitals you find in the villages, and they are managed by nurses.

Level 3: Health centre

These facilities are available at the ward level.

Level 4: Sub-county hospital

Here, one meets a radiographer to conduct an ultrasound which is recommended for women aged below 40. A general surgeon is also stationed at the facility to conduct an ultrasound and core biopsy, alongside a radiologist who reads images from the radiographer. 

There is also a pathologist to conduct a fine needle aspiration biopsy on a patient. This is a procedure involving passing a thin needle through the skin to sample fluid or tissue from a cyst or solid mass for analysis at the pathology laboratory.

Level 5: County or regional hospital

The services are more advanced at these facilities. One can do a mammogram recommended for women above the age of 40. An oncologist is also stationed at the county or regional hospital. This specialist is critical in the phase of a breast cancer patient as they are the ones who administer treatment and oversee their progress.

Level 6:  National referral hospitals

These hospitals namely Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, offer comprehensive cancer care. Unlike the lower-level hospitals, they don’t handle walk-ins. A patient has to be referred to the facility for treatment. 

The services are advanced; they have a breast surgeon to undertake surgeries.

General surgeons at the county and sub-county hospitals are limited to breast self-examination, clinical breast examination, ultrasound and core biopsy.

At the referral hospital, an oncologist offers clinical self-examination, palliative and survivorship care.

Facilities you can visit for a targeted level of care

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