President John Dramani Mahama has directed the Ministry of Health to begin plans for a cancer treatment centre in Tamale to reduce the need for patients in northern Ghana to travel to the south for specialised care.
Speaking during a visit to the Tamale Teaching Hospital, the President said access to cancer treatment remains a major gap in the northern sector and must be addressed.
“We should start looking at a cancer centre here in Tamale so that we don’t have to send patients all the way down south,” he said.
President Mahama made the call while inspecting progress on a new cardiothoracic centre at the hospital, which he described as the first of its kind in the Savannah zone.
He expressed satisfaction with the pace of work, indicating that the facility could be completed and operational by next year once equipment installation is finalised.
The President explained that the project was partly inspired by the death of a doctor who could not access timely angioplasty services due to non-functional catheterisation laboratories in both Kumasi and Accra at the time.
He said the incident prompted government to procure additional catheterisation labs for major centres, including Tamale, but noted that a full cardiology facility had to be constructed to support the equipment.
According to him, the new cardiothoracic centre will significantly improve emergency cardiac care in northern Ghana, where such specialised services are currently unavailable.
“This facility will give people in the north a better chance of survival in cardiac emergencies,” he stated.
President Mahama also highlighted the need to establish more specialised centres at teaching hospitals, citing similar developments at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
He added that once completed, the Tamale facility is expected to attract patients not only from across northern Ghana but also from neighbouring countries.
The President further commended the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (Mahama Cares) for supporting the project, while urging continued investment in healthcare infrastructure to improve access to specialist services nationwide.
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