KATH to Inaugurate Treatment Plant System

By Kingsley E.hope

Kumasi — The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) will soon inaugurate its ultra-modern Treatment Plant System at the Oncology Unit of the hospital for the treatment of cancer.

Stalled for about six years, the more than 6 million US Dollars project, saw the day of light with the help of the Ministry of Health, which fast-tracked the acquisition of funds from the Ministry of Finance.

The first cancer patient to undergo the treatment has been scheduled for the last week of September 2019, at the Oncology Unit of the hospital.

The project forms part of the oncology expansion works carried out under the National Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine project, with the installation of key and modern cancer treatment equipment.

Announcing this at the opening of the hospital's 2019 mid-year performance review workshop, the Chief Executive of KATH, Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso, disclosed that, the project was at its advanced stage of completion and that, the civil works of the project was virtually complete.

According to Dr Owusu-Danso, the installation of key equipment and the LINAC machine were completed and that, they (machine and equipment) were currently undergoing clinical test-run and collection of beam data to pave way for the inauguration.

Additionally, Dr Owusu-Danso revealed that plans were far advanced for the acquisition of other equipment expected to arrive in the country soon.

He said the hospital was sponsoring six core staff of the hospital, including two radiation oncologists, a therapy radiographer, a nurse and two medical physicists to undergo training at Mayo Clinic in the United States of America, to provide immediate and efficient delivery of service at the unit.

Dr Owusu-Danso indicated that, the ultra-modern equipment would relieve the burden of patients who travel to Accra and outside the country for cancer treatment, as the KATH Oncology centre would become the best of its kind in the treatment of cancer in West and Central Africa.

He stated that, the hospital has gained positive growth in operations in critical areas like the 24-hour pharmacy at the Accident and Emergency, which has been making average monthly sales of GH¢380,000.00.

The emergency admissions, he said, registered 9,181 cases in the first half of the year as against 7,787 for the same period in 2018, representing 18 per cent increase, and surgical operations also increased from 9,312 in 2018 to 9,818 cases in 2019, representing 5.43 per cent increase.

In terms of service output, Dr Owusu-Danso said some areas experienced shortfalls in the targets set for the hospital, as figures for both primary and specialists Out-Patient-Department cases dropped from 181,286 registered in 2018, to 173,718 in 2019, which was 9.1 per cent drop.

Similarly, deliveries dropped from 4,411 cases in 2018 to 3,563 cases in 2019, translating into a drop of 3.65 per cent with physiotherapy services also dropping from 10,334 in 2018 to 9,455 in 2019, representing 2.09 per cent drop.

However, he was optimistic that, notwithstanding the loss, the hospital would continue to grow in areas like infrastructure and continue to upgrade the welfare of the staff for best service delivery.

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