Families will no longer bear heavy costs for foreign medical diagnosis- Mahama assures
President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the commissioning of the new Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography (PET CT) scan facility at the Sweden-Ghana Medical Centre (SGMC) will spare Ghanaian families the huge financial burden associated with seeking advanced medical diagnosis abroad.
According to the President, the absence of sophisticated diagnostic technology in Ghana for many years forced patients and their relatives to spend heavily on overseas medical referrals, often while battling emotional and psychological stress.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of the facility in Accra, President Mahama said many families had been compelled to raise substantial amounts of money to support relatives requiring specialised diagnostic services outside the country.
“Distinguished guests, for far too long, many Ghanaians requiring advanced diagnosis services of this nature have had to travel abroad, often at an enormous financial, emotional and psychological cost to them and their families,” he stated.
He noted that delays in diagnosis and treatment had also become a major challenge because the necessary medical technology was unavailable locally.
“Families have had to raise substantial sums of money for overseas medical referrals. Patients have endured delay in diagnosis and treatment because the necessary technology was unavailable locally,” President Mahama added.
The President described the establishment of the PET CT facility as a major milestone in Ghana’s healthcare sector and a bold step towards improving access to specialised medical services within the country.
“Today, we make a bold national statement that this facility must not only make it unnecessary for Ghanaians to seek such services abroad, but also make Ghana a hub for specialist medical services in our West African sub-region,” he said.
President Mahama further expressed confidence that the advanced medical centre would attract patients from neighbouring countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
“So I envision people coming from Côte d’Ivoire, from Nigeria, from Togo, from Burkina Faso and the AES states, to come and seek specialist medical diagnosis here at the SGMC,” he stressed.
