GOVERNMENT will be constructing two more Cancer Disease Hospitals which will be stationed in Southern and Copperbelt Provinces respectively.
Addressing the media in Lusaka today, Ministry of Information and Media Thabo Kawana revealed that the two hospitals, currently underway will be state of the art infrastructures.
Kawana added that the construction of these facilities is aimed at ensuring that Cancer patients do not continue with the grueling and stressful evacuation to longer distances. 
Currently, the country only has one Cancer Diseases Hospital at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka.
The Permanent Secretary stated that government, through Ministry of Health had continued to evacuate patients from all walks of life to various destinations such as India, Tanzania and South Africa for various serious medical attention.
“We will not only revamp and rehabilitate the cancer disease hospital in Lusaka at the UTH. But a similar facility is currently being built on the Copperbelt and another one being built in Southern Province in Livingstone – state of the art cancer diseases hospitals to ensure that we facilitate for our people through Southern Province, Lusaka Province and Copperbelt Province so that we get to a point where we don’t need to evacuate [patients]” stated Kawana.
Meanwhile, Kawana revealed that President Hakainde Hichilema ordered for the evacuation of the late former Cabinet minister Edith Nawakwi together with former first lady Vera Chiluba for medical attention in South Africa.
He dismissed assertions that Nawakwi and Hichilema were at loggerheads.
Kawana added that Government had also been taking care of Nawakwi prior to her death by procuring medicine which was too expensive for her to afford on her own.
“Ms Edith Nawakwi was also evacuated together with former First Lady Vera Chiluba for medical attention in South Africa. The president didn’t look at Nawakwi as an enemy. She had cancer. And her treatment became expensive and government ordered to procure medicine for her. Even prior to the evacuation, government was taking care of her,” revealed Kawana.
