Child cancer victims 'not diagnosed'

THE Eastern Cape Health Department has admitted failing to diagnose and treat hundreds of children suffering from cancer.

Health officials say the need for a paediatric oncology unit is great, especially as children were overlooked with the recent establishment of a R100-million oncology unit at Livingstone Hospital.

In an internal memorandum to Dr Thobile Mbengashe, the superintendent general of the Health Department, Dr Kobus Kotze, the chief executive of Livingstone Hospital and the coordinator of Port Elizabeth's Public Hospitals, said they estimated 400 children should be diagnosed in the province with cancer every year but this was not happening. - Estelle Ellisx