Mr Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, Executive Director of Meena Breast Cancer Foundation (MBCF), has appealed to the government to include the cost of biopsy and pathology under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for breast cancer treatment.
He also urged the government to make the cost of surgery and chemotherapy also free for breast cancer patients.
Mr Kwarteng made the appeal at a press conference to discuss key issues affecting breast cancer patients in Ghana.
The Foundation is an initiative birthed on the vision of the late Mrs. Amina Oppong Kwarteng, who died on June 18, 2022, of breast cancer.
She was the wife of Mr Ibrahim, the Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation and Ambassador Extraordinaire of Ghana Prisons.
While, she was on her sickbed, Mrs Kwarteng vowed to fight relentlessly against breast cancer through advocacy and giving financial support to poor patients.
Mr Kwarteng said the inability of patients to afford the basic laboratories every three weeks during treatment was forcing them to stay home and die.
He said according to the Global Cancer Observatory in 2020, there were 4,482 breast cancer cases recorded in Ghana with 2,055 deaths.
He said the figure was obviously more because many of those affected by the disease are largely unaccounted for.
The Executive Director said over 4000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer annually and almost half of them die, adding that 70 per cent of women in Ghana have advanced stage cancer by the time it was identified.
Mr Kwarteng said education should be championed by the National Commission on Civic Education, indicating that this would go a long way to deal with the myths and misconceptions associated with the disease.
“We have realized that many young girls and women do not know about the deadly nature of the disease and this can be attributed to the failure to regularly educate them on breast cancer and breast care,” he added.
He said, “those from remote communities do not have the means to pay for Mammogram, Biopsy and Pathology which we all know is expensive and not captured by NHIS.”
Mr Kwarteng said inadequate facilities at the hospitals have a significant negative effect on the treatment of breast cancer with lack of enough diagnostic and treatment machines usually delaying treatment, causing patient’s condition to worsen.
“Apart from Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and some few private hospitals that have oncology units, there are no oncology units even at the district level polyclinics,” he said.
He said the mere fact that some patients would have to travel far to access healthcare forces them to be reluctant and resort to herbal medicines and treatments near them.
Mr Kwarteng said there was the need for adequate counselling for breast cancer patients on lifestyles during and after treatment, saying lack of counselling on such sensitive issues results in patients listening to all sorts of advice from people, who knew less about breast cancer and they end up mixing herbal medicines with orthodox medicines.
“We will plead with the oncology departments at the various hospitals to create a counseling team and desk to engage breast cancer patients,” he said.
He noted that early detection and early reporting with effective treatment would help and save more lives.
The Executive Director encourage women to quickly report to the hospital as soon as they detect anything odd about their breast.
He, therefore, called on all CSO’s, health advocacy groups and all other Cancer Support Groups, to add their voices for the government to come to the aid of struggling patients living on borrowed lives.
Mrs Abena Kumiwa Osae, Programmes Officer, Ministry of Health, encouraged women to seek
regular screening, adding that early detection saves lives.
She said education and awareness creation was critical in fighting cancer, hence her outfit would collaborate with health facilities to spread the message of early detention.
Ms Raissa Sambou, a Breast Cancer survivor and a journalist, appealed to the government to make the treatment of breast cancer in Ghana very easy.
GNA