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Re-orient service delivery to offer hope to patients
Mr Amoo-Bediako
Health managers, professionals, institutions must re-orient in delivering services and offer hope to clients and patients, a director at theTakoradi Port, Mr Peter Amoo-Bediako, has advocated.
He argued that the health sector must be positioned to work on the stigmatisation and misconceptions especially around breast cancer soas to bring smiles on the faces of patients who call for succor at hospitals.
“You need to remain focused and empathise, your jobs is to give hope, if you can’t do it, leave,” Mr Amoo-Bediako stressed as he told his ordeals and trauma, and experiences at health centres with his wife, who died 12 years ago, with breast cancer.
He gave the admonition at a durbar organised by GPHA Takoradi Hospital on Wednesday, to advocate the collective action to fight breast cancer in Ghana, as part of the global efforts.
As he spoke, Mr Amoo-Bediako broke down momentarily, and in teary demeanour, he continued “If we must die, we must die in dignity. Give hope to anyone no matter the status, colour, tribe, race or religion.”
He recalled that in 2011, whiles on vacation in UK, he received a call from his wife about complaints of pains at the back.
Quickly, he said, he flew down and that, initial investigations showed that his wife was in pains, which had spread to the spine, hence the need for biopsy.
Mr Amoo-Bediako said, results from the KomfoAnokye Teaching Hospital and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital proved that the woman had breast cancer which had spread to the spinal chord.
“I said to myself, but, for how long. I went bankrupt, indeed, Iwas in pain. Doctors concluded there’s nothing they could do because of the spread. How do I tell the young ones what was happening?”
He, therefore, reiterated the calls for early detection, saying“we can’t wait, it will be too late.”
Mr Amoo-Bediako said “We need to work together and it’s very important. We pray for long life. We thank GPHA Hospital for the awareness creation and for people to tell their stories. I pray that never shall this disease come to us in GPHA. The pictures we’ve seen here are not abstracts, they are real.”
He told GPHA staff that he had given directives for every staff to go for medical checkup every year.
A survivor of breast cancer, Madam Ekuwa Tawiah from Sekondi, also spoke about her experiences 18 years ago when she was diagnosed of having a lump in the breast and underwent an operation at the Korle Bu Hospital, to save her life.
“Don’t be afraid in such situations and hide in your room. I’m 78 years and still proud. It’s not a death sentence. If you hide in your room, you may die. Let’s work together,” she added.
The Administrator, GPHA Hospital, Dr Helen Tettey, was happy this year’s celebration had been very successful, adding “We’ve seen a significant improvement this year, over the 500 recorded in 2022.”
“The attitude is changing and getting better and our expectation is that it will not be onlyin October, but, become a lifestyle, so that, at least every month, we have people screened. The treatments, the modules are getting better. Let’s use what we have to save lives.”
From Clement Adzei Boye, Takoradi