Government is set to roll out a free house-to-house breast screening to improve access to early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
The training in partnership with Breast Care International (BCI) will train the nurses on oncology to work in deprived communities.
President of the cancer NGO, Dr. Mrs. Beatrice Wiafe Addai revealed this in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem ahead of its annual cancer awareness walk in the Eastern regional capital, Koforidua.
The programe is being implemented by the National Youth Employment Programme, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDEs) in 56 communities in the Ashanti and Eastern regions on pilot basis.
It is an initiative of the BCI to have two unemployed nurses to undergo an intensive training by the end of July, to carry out house-house visits to carry out basic diagnosis of breast cancer and referral to kick-start the programme in August.
Dr. Wiafe Addai who is also the Chief Executive Officer of BCI the Peace and Love Hospital said the move is to make the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer more accessible and at the doorstep of people to “reduce the transportation and other logistical burden on the rural woman in the bid to get treatment for breast cancer”.
She said despite the awareness creation in the intensive campaign spearheaded by her organisation on breast cancer, early diagnosis and treatment remained a challenge because there were no oncology nurses at the various health centres and the CHPS centres where majority of the rural dwellers access basic healthcare to give appropriate attention.
The breast surgeon also revealed the Eastern region is currently leading in breast cancer cases due to the low publicity breast cancer education
Dr. Wiafe Addai said the programme to be piloted in the Eastern and Ashanti region is to bridge the gap between accessing healthcare for breast cancer and to create jobs for the teeming nurses unemployed.
Breast cancer has been identified as the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Ghana, with about 2,900 cases being diagnosed annually and at least one of eight women with the disease dying.
The root causes of the disease are not yet known but hereditary and the lifestyle of individuals have been identified by doctors as some of the causes of the disease.