THE FOUNDER and President of Breast Care International (BCI) has joined calls for a structured, uniformed global health architecture to reflect the inclusion of cancer care into ideals of universal health coverage globally, more especially in Sub Saharan Africa.
Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, front liner continental campaigner against breast cancer said an integrated health care system was a pivotal leverage to correct the imbalance in furtherance of achieving and securing the objects of universal health coverage.
She was speaking in Rabat, in the Kingdom of Morocco at the just-ended African collaborative forum on health, on the theme ‘Equity, Gender and African Sovereignty in Healthcare’, hosted by the renowned Breast Surgeon, Professor Raja Aghzadi, on June 2023.
Participants at the Rabat forum, including ministers of State from various African countries, sitting and former heads of states, academia, health care personnel, policy makers and opinion leaders, highlighted equity, gender and African sovereignty in health care, to correct the unjust global health order.
Associating herself with the urgent need for improved health care as a cornerstone to economic and social stability on the African continent, Dr. Wiafe Addai made a strong case for countries to incorporate cancer management into the universal health coverage roadmap.
Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai, who also the Chief Executive of Peace and Love Hospitals in Ghana said the roadmap encourages increased access to full range of quality essential health care services whenever needed.
Dr. Wiafe said “Ghana was committed to the full realization of this concept, and had developed policies over the years to provide essential services for the citizenry, with special attention on women health”.
She referred to The Lancet Oncology Report on SSA, which was successfully launched in Ghana in May 2022, and reiterated the eight special calls to urgent action that promises to be the game changer, if countries in SSA would adhere to these action points, including the integration of cancer care continuum into the universal health coverage.
Highlighting the gains of Breast Care International’s example as captured in the Lancet Oncology report, Gambian representative showed his serious interest in BCI and asked for immediate collaboration, as nothing of the sort exists in his country.
The forum, at the instance of Professor Raja Aghzadi, a renowned Moroccan breast surgeon, said poor health systems posed a threat to global security because diseases are geographically mobile.
Professor Raja deplored the skewed global health architecture and challenged countries to integrate and harmonize health care policies through synergiesfor improved efficient systems, best practice, risk management strategies and increased community engagement.
Story by Francis Appiah
