The agonies of cancer patients in Nigeria and other parts of the African continent will soon become a thing of the past as Ogun State Government has concluded plans with HTI Global Cancer Partners of the United States of America to construct a $150m Cancer Institute in the State.
State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka who disclosed this at a press conference held in Abeokuta stated that the Step is another gesture of the State government to provide adequate health care services, adding that the centre would be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to render both diagnostic and curative services on all types of cancer.
Dr. Soyinka pointed out that the Institute would be situated at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu to facilitate academic affiliation, disclosing that the State government intends to make some of the cancer services available to poor patients through the Community Based Health Insurance Scheme (CBHIS).
The Commissioner emphasised that the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led administration’s commitment to resuscitating the healthcare sector remained unwavering as the institute would be the first of the its kind on the African continent.
Also speaking,his counterpart in the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Barr. Yusuph Olaniyonu observed that the move would motivate people from other parts of the continent to seek medical treatment as well as attract medical personnel to learn about the treatment of the different types of cancer.
In his remark, the Chairman, Board of Managers, HTI Global Cancer Partners, Dr. Bert Petersen said the Institute is a holistic project which would span through prevention, health promotion, screening, recruitment of expert personnel, diagnosis of all treatment modalities, research, development and training. Dr. Petersen observed that the present leadership of the State Government encouraged the partnership, lauding the government for “gradually bringing into being war against cancer”.
Also speaking, the Chief Operating Officer of the USA based partners, Miss Ericka Consin-Mosheshe, expressed optimism that “by January 2015, we will treat our first patient. We realised that a lot of patients go abroad, so we anticipate that we have many patients who would not have to leave the country anymore to seek medical services”.
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