President John Dramani Mahama has called on the Ministry of Health to begin planning a cancer treatment centre in Tamale, arguing that northern Ghanaians should no longer be forced to travel to Kumasi or Accra to access radiotherapy and other specialised cancer care.
The President made the call on Sunday during an inspection of the ongoing construction of a Catheterisation Laboratory and cardiothoracic centre at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, saying the completion of the cardiac facility should not be the end of the push to bring specialised medical services to the north.
“Even though we have secured this one, 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,” President Mahama told the Ministry of Health.
Currently, cancer patients in the northern regions who require radiotherapy and advanced cancer treatment have no option but to make the long journey south.
President Mahama said the approach of developing centres of excellence at teaching hospitals was one he had pursued before, pointing to the establishment of plastic surgery, oncology and cardiothoracic units at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital as a model he intended to replicate at Tamale Teaching Hospital.
“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 said.
The call for a cancer centre came on the same day the President inspected the cardiothoracic centre under construction at the hospital — itself a facility that will be the first of its kind across all five northern regions. That facility, funded through the Ghana Medical Trust and Mahama Cares, is expected to be commissioned by next year.
The President said his vision was for Tamale Teaching Hospital to grow into a hub of specialised medical units capable of serving not just northern Ghana but the broader sub-region, noting that the cardiac facility alone was likely to attract patients from neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
