The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has received the long-awaited mechanical parts needed to fix its broken radiotherapy machine, offering a glimmer of hope to cancer patients who have gone weeks without treatment.
The machine, which had been out of service for nearly five weeks, is crucial for delivering life-saving radiotherapy to patients battling cancer.
Its breakdown halted treatments for many patients, some of whom travel from as far as the northernmost parts of Ghana to access care at KATH, the only radiotherapy center serving about twelve regions in the northern sector.
According to hospital sources, technicians have already begun work to restore the machine, following the delivery of the replacement parts.
The hospital’s CEO, Professor Otchere Addai-Mensah, visited the radiotherapy unit to personally inspect and support the repair process.
The Oncology Department currently operates with two machines, but one is considered obsolete and no longer has parts available on the market.
The heavy reliance on the remaining machine has raised serious concerns about sustainability and patient care.
Calls for a full retooling of the hospital’s cancer treatment infrastructure have grown louder.
Last year, medical staff went on strike after the breakdown of the Linear Accelerator System, drawing national attention to the hospital’s aging equipment.
Dr. Bawuah Osei Bonsu, Head of the Oncology Department, said, “We will need another machine so that we transfer the patients onto the other if one develops a fault.”
Each year, between 16,000 and 20,000 patients visit KATH’s Oncology Unit, and about 60 percent require radiotherapy.
Managers recently reiterated these concerns during a visit by Parliament’s Select Committee on Health.