KATH oncology expansion project almost ready

The Oncology Department of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, the country’s second-largest referral facility, is set to treat its first cancer patient by the close of the month with the Hospital’s oncology expansion project almost complete.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Oheneba Owusu-Danso who announced this said civil works of the project, as well as the installation of the LINAC machine - the key equipment for the facility, were virtually completed.

The ultra-modern equipment was currently being test-run alongside the collection of beam data to pave way for the commissioning and validation for clinical use in the treatment of cancers.

The CEO announced this at the opening ceremony of the 2019 mid-year performance review of the hospital in Kumasi

“Currently we are not able to treat children who suffer cancer. They have to go to other oncology centres which are private facilities or outside the country for treatment”, he stated   

He said the current management inherited the US$6.5 million project which had stalled for five years    

They were sponsoring the training of six core staff at the Mayo Clinic in the United States of America (USA), to ensure efficient service delivery at the centre.

Dr. Owusu-Danso was upbeat about the completion of the project saying that it would significantly improve the treatment of different cancer cases hitherto referred to the Department.

He said during the period under review, the hospital inaugurated two ultra-modern oxygen plants and accessories procured at the cost of almost GH¢6 million to replace the 20-year-old obsolete plants which were producing less than five percent of the hospital’s oxygen needs.

The procurement of the new plants, he noted, had saved the hospital a cost of GH¢12,000.00 daily, which was spent to make up the remaining 95 percent oxygen needs.

He added that a total of GH¢1.4 million was spent on the procurement of new equipment to improve the quality of services at the hospital from its internally generated funds.

As part of efforts to improve operational efficiency, management intensified the roll-out of the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) software to comprehensively computerize and transform all aspects of the hospital’s operations.

The facility, however, recorded some shortfalls in its targets as figures for both primary and specialists outpatient department cases dropped from 181,286 registered in 2018 to 173,718 in 2019, representing 9.1 percent drop.