Senior Presidential Advisor Yaw Osafo-Maafo has charged the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to focus on developing some of its centres for medical tourism.
His comment comes on the back of the 25th-anniversary celebration of the National Radiotherapy Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Centre at the teaching hospital.
Speaking at the event, Osafo-Maafo said the establishment of the National Radiotherapy Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Centre has contributed to boosting medical tourism as people from other countries travel to Ghana to seek medical care.
He urged the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to leverage on this to create more medical tourism centres.
“The National Centre for Radiotherapy Oncology and Nuclear Medicine have saved this country huge amount of foreign exchange because you can imagine those we are treating now if they were all to be finding treatment outside our shores…all this now taking place here. But most important thing is that the Centre is developing what I call medical tourism. A lot of people in the sub-region are coming down to get treatment from that Centre and this is one big advantage Korle-Bu should take as a policy to develop some centres as medical tourist centres because people believe in the Ghanaian skills and people will come down within our sub-region to get treatment and pay for it in dollars,” he said.
Osafo-Maafo also underscored government’s commitment to decentralize cancer care while also indicating his support for the procurement of a mammography van.
“We will take particular interest in the drive to decentralize cancer control activities down to the CHPS compound under the supervision of district health management teams. Cancer should not be an Accra matter. It should not be a city matter. It is the ordinary Ghanaian matter,” the senior presidential advisor said.
“Till date, our effort at early detection of breast cancer which is the leading cancer in incidence and mortality among women worldwide including Ghana has at best been opportunistic instead of the recommended population based screening using the mammography. To this end, I fully support the Centre’s drive to raise funds to procure a mammography van that will have the capacity to move to every corner of this country and I suggest we do target lobbying,” he added.
On his part, the Director of the National Radiotherapy Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Centre, Dr. Joel Yarney, highlighted the significant milestones achieved by the centre, including equipment upgrades, while also mentioning the challenges faced by the centre and cancer patients.
He said for instance that the Centre is currently confronted with a GH¢ 1 million debt as a result of duty fees imposed on recent radioactive source change.
“There are issues of financial, logistical and psycho-social barriers to cancer care. The cost element that feeds into the determination of patient fees including cost of radioactive material, maintenance agreement on equipment and duty on some of our inputs make treatment expensive and beyond the reach of some Ghanaians. For instance, a bill of GH¢1 million is pending for us to pay as duty fees incurred on our recent radioactive source change. I am sure we will need help with that because that was unexpected,” Dr Joel Yarney remarked. Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo-Maafo suggested to the Centre to apply for tax waivers which he believes will not be turned down by Parliament.
The anniversary celebration, held under the theme “Twenty-five years of excellence in comprehensive cancer care in Ghana,” served as the launch for the cancer survivorship care plan and a fundraising campaign for a mammography van.
Awards were presented to individuals and organizations, including the Ghana National Petroleum Commission, Ghana International Women’s Club, and the National Petroleum Authority, for their contributions to cancer care.
Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was specially recognized for her advocacy leading to the establishment of the National Radiotherapy Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Centre in the country.