Peace and Love Hospital signs cancer management agreement with Apollo Hospital in India
Peace and Love Hospitals (PLH) in Ghana has signed an agreement, in cancer management in Ghana with Apollo Hospitals in India; a leading multi-specialty health care center with first-class cancer treatment facilities in the world.
The partnership will empower medical doctors at Peace and Love Hospitals to use proton therapy as an advanced technology in the treatment of cancers.
The Chief Executive Officer of Peace and Love Hospitals (PLH) in Ghana Dr Mrs Beatrice Wiafe Addai said the proton therapy will improve cancer management and quality of survivorship in Ghana.
Proton therapy according to her is a type of radiation therapy that uses high-energy protons (positively charged atoms) to damage the DNA in cancer cells.
This type of cancer treatment is non-invasive, painless, and precise, Dr Wiafe Addai added.
Dr Mrs Beatrice Wiafe Addai who is also the President of Breast Care International (BCI) made this known during a Scientific Symposium on Current Advancement in Global Cancer Care.
It was held at the premises of Peace and Love Hospital at Oduom in the Oforikrom municipality of the Ashanti region, on Wednesday, September 27, 2023.
In attendance was Senior Consultant at the Radiation Oncology at the Apollo Proton Cancer Center in Chennai India, Dr Ashu Abhishek, who represented Apollo Hospital.
Dr Mrs Beatrice Wiafe Addai noted that cancer management has changed; there has been a great improvement on how cancer is managed.
“So we need to be in partnership with an institution that has moved so fast when we talk about current advancement in cancer therapy,” she added.
Apollo Hospital in India is a leading cancer hospital in the world where proton therapy is available, so the collaboration between the two health facilities is not only an achievement for PLS, but an achievement for Ghana,” Dr Wiafe Addai stated.
Dr Wiafe Addai posited that with the proton therapy equipment, more cancer patients are likely to survive the disease.
“With proton therapy, that’s the highest one can go, it’s no longer only radiotherapy but the proton therapy is equipment that has come to change the way cancer is managed globally. So we see it as a great advantage and we are excited to come to this agreement with such a great health institution,” she concluded.
Dr Ashu Abhishek in his remarks said the collaboration between the two facilities to prepare them to combat cancer, which they consider to be an epidemic in the next five to ten years.
“The collaboration between the two health facilities is to transfer our experience and technology to help doctors and people in Ghana to understand that cancer is the next epidemic, and if they do not understand it now five to ten years time it will be very difficult to fight the disease,” he said.
Dr Ashu Abhishek added that “we should start understanding the building of cancer, then to build upon our capacity to treat these cancer patients that will make justice to the healthcare that we are supposed to provide as healthcare providers.”
On why Apollo Hospital chose Peace and Love Hospitals in Ghana, Dr Ashu Abhishek noted that Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai has been the front line in the non-communicable diseases advocacy, and through her, a lot of people will be reached in Ghana.
Apollo Hospital representative for Africa Mr. Ashit said the Hospital has been following up with Peace and Love Hospitals in Ghana for the past ten years to sign a partnership agreement, but it is only now that PLH has given the green light.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com/Francis Appiah
