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HopeXchange screens residents of Nwamase for cervical, breast cancer
It was a collaboration between the facility and the Kwadaso Community Health Centre with support from the United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID).
The outreach formed part of the annual activities of the facility which had extended its services to the people living within its catchment areas.
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While the general public was screened for diseases such as malaria, diabetes, hypertension and other non-communicable diseases, the women were also screened for cervical cancer and breast cancer.
Rationale
Briefing the media, Bismarck Antwi, the leader of the team from HopeXchange Medical Centre, said over the years, the facility had been extending its services to the communities within its operational area and also offered free health screening to the vulnerable in society.
He said it was in this vein that the facility decided to bring healthcare to the door steps of the residents and also give them the opportunity to get screened.
According to him, the facility decided to screen the women for breast and cervical cancer because the diseases have been on the increase in the country and there was the need for early detection in order to save the patients.
He explained that due to the cost involved in getting screened, many of them were unable to avail themselves of the service but believed if it was being done free, many of them would turn out to take advantage of it.
Education
Aside from the screening, the residents were also educated on the causes, symptoms of breast and cervical cancers.
Constance Oppong, a Midwife with the HopeXchange Medical Centre, advised the women to constantly do self-breast examinations to find out if there is any lump in the breast and report to the nearest health facility when they observe anything.
According to her, early detection could save their lives and as such, she urged them to seek early treatment and not to resort to any herbal concoction that would worsen their plight.
Appreciation
The District Director of Nursing Service of Kwadaso, Vivian Essilfie, was grateful to the facility for the collaboration which she said would enable more residents to have access to services that were not available at the health centre.
She was particularly happy with the cervical and breast cancer screening which she said would help the women know their status and take precautionary measures.
Related development
The management of Hope Xchange Medical Centre at Apire in the Kwadaso Municipality expressed their appreciation to the people of the United of States of America (USA) for supporting the facility with medical equipment, making it one of the best equipped hospitals in the region.
Since its inception in 2016, the USA through USAID, has been supporting the facility with equipment and cash to enable it to undertake outreach programmes within its catchment area.
The Manager of the facility, Dominic Osei-Kofi, said through the kind benevolence of USAID, the centre was the only public health facility after Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in the whole of Ashanti Region to have a pathology laboratory.
“HopeXchange has state-of-the-art pathology laboratories providing first class pathology services to hospitals even beyond the Ashanti Region,” he said.
Aside from the pathology lab, he said USAID had been very instrumental in the setting up of the hospital laboratory to conduct other investigations.
Handy
A Senior Specialist Paediatrician with the hospital, Dr Adoma Odame, said the laboratory had helped in the healthcare at the hospital as lab results were received on time to determine the diseases affecting the patients and provide them with the right medical care.
Hitherto, she said the patients had to go outside the facility to have their laboratory test and this took time and some patients passed on even before their lab results were obtained.
However, she said with the lab at the hospital, patients did not have to go outside the facility for that service thus bringing relief to the patients and also improving on the turnaround time patients had to spend at the hospital seeking health care.