[ 2012-05-12 ]

Health Minister tours Sweden-Ghana Medical Center
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.

Source - GNA

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