Accra, May 11, GNA – Mr Kingsford Alban Sumani Bagbin, Minister of Health, on Friday expressed the hope that Sweden would continue to be a good partner of Ghana in the development of health, education and agriculture.
He said Ghana would associate itself with Sweden because Sweden was ranked one of the best in the world in the management of both human and material resource.
Mr Bagbin said these when he toured the Sweden-Ghana Medical Center (SGMC) in Accra, to familiarize and acquaint himself with the authorities and operations of the Center.
He said the Ministry of Health would support the Center to achieve its goal of providing good quality health care for Ghanaians and people of the West African sub-region.
Mr Bagbin said the treatment of cancer was expensive and Ghana would collaborate with the Center to make the treatment of the disease affordable to Ghanaians.
Mr Bagbin said plans were far advanced to replace obsolete cancer equipment at the Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals with the state-of-arts equipment, to facilitate the diagnose and treatment of cancer.
He said Government would support the Center and hope that doctors at the facility would impact their knowledge to Ghanaian medical practitioners to help provide quality health care delivery.
Dr Henry Broni-Amponsah, Board Chairman of the SGMC, said the facility assisted cancer patients who could not fully pay for the treatment, and added that the Center would next month launch the Sweden-Ghana Foundation for cancer treatment, to solicit funds to support the poor and needy, who cannot pay for cancer treatment.
Dr Broni-Amponsah said the centre needed full time Ghanaian medical engineers, radiographers and radio-oncologist and added that “What has been done so far is a collaboration of both local and foreign personnel for the needed support.”
He appealed to Government and the media to support the Center to propagate the message of good health care across the country and the West African sub-region.
Cancer is a class of diseases characterised by out-of-control cell growth and has over 1000 different types, with each classified by the type of cell that was initially affected.
The disease is also characterised by a cluster of cells forming a tumor and apart from the uncontrolled cell growth, cancer has the capacity to invade surrounding tissues and spread to other organs.
The centre was established in 2007 at the instance of a Scandinavian Care Project AB, based in Stockholm, and financed by Global Medical Investment, Swedfund and Elekta, and Ghanaian investors.
The centre, which operates a basic cancer care unit, consisting of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, magnetic resonance imaging and computerize tomography scan, offers consultation and advice to cancer patients.
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