President John Dramani Mahama has asked the Ministry of Health to begin planning for the construction of a cancer treatment centre in Tamale, saying patients in northern Ghana should not have to travel south for specialist care.

Speaking during a visit to the Tamale Teaching Hospital, President Mahama said the ministry should “start looking at a cancer centre here in Tamale so that we don't have to send patients all the way down to the south to be able to receive specialised treatment”.

The president was inspecting work on the new Cardiothoracic Centre, which he said would be the first of its kind in the Savannah area.

“I'm satisfied with the rate of work, and I'm sure that it should be completed soon. All the equipment is available, and as soon as the construction work is finished, the equipment will be installed.

"And maybe by next year, we will all come back and commission the first Cardiothoracic Centre in the whole of the Savannah area,” he said.

President Mahama explained that the project was triggered by the death of a doctor in Kumasi who needed urgent angioplasty.

“What triggered all this was a medical doctor in Kumasi needed the services of a cath lab, they call it a cath lab, it’s used for angioplasty, am I right? And the one in Kumasi was broken down,” he said.

“They rushed him to Accra; the one in Accra had a fire incident and was out of service. So unfortunately, he died.”

He said this incident triggered the government to decide to procure two catheterisation labs for Accra and Kumasi, then added a third for Tamale to improve national coverage.

“And we said, 'But why don't we get one for Tamale too?' So that at least geographically across the whole country, we would have a cath lab so that in the event that somebody needs that urgently, they'd be able to be treated,” President Mahama said.

He said it became clear that Tamale needed a full cardiology centre to support the equipment.

“When the one for Tamale was brought, we realised that it didn't have all the supporting services to be able to make it functional,” he explained.

“Because the one in Accra is at the Cardio Centre, they've got their ICU, they've got their wards, they've got their consulting rooms and everything. So it meant that we needed to build a whole Cardio Centre for Tamale in order to install the cath lab and give them all the ancillary services.”

The president said the facility would fill a major gap in the north.

“The significance of this facility is that in the whole of the northern sector, there is no facility like this,” he said.

“Everybody who gets a cardiovascular accident or a stroke or something, most of the time you have to be stabilised, if they can stabilise you, and then refer you to Accra or Kumasi.”

“Today, we're giving the people in the whole of the north of this country a facility where they also can have a good chance of survival in case they have a cardiac incident,” he added.

“This is the only one of its type in all five northern regions.”

President Mahama thanked the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, known as ‘Mahama Cares’, for funding the centre. He predicted high demand once it opens.

“I'm sure that this facility is going to be overwhelmed with patients because I'm sure patients even from Burkina Faso and other parts of the sub-region are going to come here to seek treatment,” he said.

He called for more “centres of excellence” at Tamale Teaching Hospital, citing similar specialist units previously built at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

“I believe that the way to go with our teaching hospitals is to continue to set up these centres of excellence. We did that with Korle-Bu; we did the Plastic and Burns unit, we did the Oncology unit, we did the Cardiothoracic unit,” he said.

“With Tamale Teaching Hospital, while we have the general hospital, we must supplement it with specialised institutions so that more people can be able to get specialised care,” he added.

On cancer care, the president noted that patients currently travel long distances for treatment.

“Right now, cancer patients have to go to Kumasi or Accra for radiotherapy and some of the other specialised cancer treatment,” he said.

“So I'll throw it again to the Ministry of Health, we thank you, but like Oliver Twist, we've secured…”

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Mahama directs Health Ministry to build cancer treatment centre in Tamale as new heart facility nears completion

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