The National Youth for Peace, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) is calling on government to fully incorporate treatment of breast cancer into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
According to the NGO, breast cancers were among the leading causes of illness and death globally as 70 per cent of patients with breast cancer were normally single mothers and widows.
These patients, it said finds it difficult to afford the medication and other related treatment, hence resort to losing their lives.
This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the Executive Director of the NGO, Mr Eric Baffoe Nyarko and copied the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday.
The NGO said the cost of managing breast cancer, especially advanced cases, was usually beyond the financial means of patients and their families saying, the level of services and financial barriers to these patients amount to an “unethical denial’ as cancer patients must be given the same level of treatment to other patients like, malaria patients.
“The NHIS does not entirely cover treatment of breast cancer. It only subsidises chemotherapy which is part of breast cancer treatment. But, some patients require more than just chemotherapy to get cured from the disease,” it said.
The NGO explained that, surgery and radiotherapy which costs several thousands of cedis were also part of most breast cancer treatments in Ghana as many of the cases were detected at middle and late stages.
In Ghana, it said most breast cancer cases were detected at stage three and beyond and with such diagnosis “you need various cycles of chemotherapy, surgery and at least 16 rounds of radiation, where some even go up to 25 rounds.”
It indicated that, due to the cost of the radiotherapy, many patients default treatment leading to the death of the patients.
“The radiotherapy is very expensive so many patients default treatment because they can’t afford it. Many patients depend of the benevolence of NGOs and philanthropists to be able to afford treatment,” it added.
The NGO therefore called on the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, National Health Insurance Authority and other stakeholders in the health sector to consider their plea to relief patients of their burden.
It also encouraged women to engage in regular breast screening exercises to get early treatment.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
