Latest News | News Break Nigeria Statistics show that most cancer patients from Nigeria and other countries in the region go to India, Egypt and Turkey for treatment. A minimum of 500 to 1,000 patients leave for India every month and that translates to about $2 million every month just to India. The regulation and treatment of cancer in the West African sub-region is getting a new boost as a group of Swedish and Ghanaian investors have set up a world class innovative cancer care facility in Accra, Ghana. The facility called Sweden-Ghana Medical Centre (SGMC) has come in time to help solve the region’s need for private oncology services. Speaking on this initiative, Joshua Tetteh, CEO of SGMC says, “to run an infrastructure like cancer centre, you need 24 hours power supply, an enabling environment, the atomic energy permission and other support structures because cancer treatment requires a lot of efforts and logistics. “SGMC is well equipped with a modern 3-D planning system. Our cancer care involves linear accelerator, medical oncology with out-patient chemotherapy suite and diagnostic services. We have medical experts from Nigeria, Ghana, Sweden, Britain and Australia. SGMC also provide care for general medical issues,” says Tetteh. According to Clement Edusa, medical oncologist SGMC, “In the last two years, we have handled over 1,004 patients most of which are palliative cases. We get a lot of late cases which cannot be cured but just managed to reduce the pain. Seven out of 10 are late. We need early cases which can be cured. “SGMC patients outside Ghana are mostly from Burkina Faso, Togo, Sierra leone and Nigeria. In order to reduce cost of treatment, the governments of Burkin Faso and Togo have reached an agreement with us to support their citizens using our facility.” Edusa further adds that “we also run a micro-insurance programme that enables the 185,000 members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) send any of their members plus one family member or relative with such ailment for free treatment.” It is on record that about 95 of the teachers have benefited from the scheme in the past nine months. How the scheme works GNAT pays Sweden-Ghana Cancer Foundation about $34,000 every month for the first one year to cover all members, while each member pays about 34 cents every month. Though treatment is totally free from all types of cancer diagnosis are to be paid for by individuals at a highly discounted rate. Jens Engelson, SGMC medical director/consultant in radiation oncology, says “Nigerians can train at our facility by writing through the medical institutions where they work.” He further reveals that “apart from our lifestyle which has changed in the last few years, one of the major upsurges in cancer diseases is increased awareness which has also made more people to be diagnosed of cancer. Sadly, most of the statistics in circulation on cancer in this part of the world have been inaccurate.” “Most of these cases are already there, we just did not have a proper system in place where these cases are captured and reported. Having said this, it is important to note that the levels of awareness and diagnosis have improved tremendously in the last few years.” Kemi Ajumobi
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 01:25:09 +0000
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