‘Let NHIS cover childhood cancer’

The medical team at the Paediatric Cancer Unit of KBTH in a group photograph with Alex Segbefia after the thanksgiving service.

Dr Lona Awo Renner, paediatrician at the Paediatric Cancer Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), has advocated the inclusion of full children’s cancer care on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Dr Renner said it is very cost effective; looking at the productive life a child cured from cancer will have for their families and nation.

“As little as GHC2000 can be enough to treat and cure a child with cancer like lymphoma in Ghana which will amount to over 60 years of productive life for the child, society and the nation,” she said.

She made this appeal during the thanksgiving service attended by the medical team at the Children’s Cancer Unit of KBTH, in commemoration with the International Childhood Cancer Day (ICCD) which is marked on February 15, each year.

This appeal comes on the heels of the inauguration of a seven-member committee to review the NHIS, propose options for reform and provide a blueprint for the NHIS that is national in character and transcends political transitions.
.
Dr Renner said statistics shows that in Ghana, one in every 500 children will be affected by cancer by age 15, thus with our population, it is expected that 1,000 children below 15 years will be affected yearly.

She indicated that although childhood cancer has to compete with other pressing healthcare needs for limited resources, one has to bear in mind the fact that “it is our moral duty to ensure children affected ay all disease conditions, including cancer have access to acceptable standard of care.”

She said childhood cancer can be cured provided the known effective treatments are made available, affordable and are utilised.

Dr Renner also used the occasion to urge stakeholders, including the media to raise public awareness about the early signs and symptoms of childhood cancer.

She said persistent symptoms such as swelling in abdomen, head, neck, glands, unexplained fever, weight loss, bleeding, pallor, fatigue, aches in bones, back fractures, blindness and bulging eye observed in children should be reported to the health facility for diagnosis and treatment.

ICCD is marked each year to educate the public about childhood cancer, advocate access to appropriate care for children affected by cancer wherever they are in the world, and promote the work of local parent organisation.