Building on the success in Asuncion, Paraguay, City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) is proud to announce the ongoing extension of its Readiness for Access to Cancer Medicines Programme to Kumasi, Ghana. This programme aims to address context specific gaps within the current health system that are affecting continuity of care and preventing cancer medicines to achieve their maximum intended clinical benefit for patients in need in Kumasi.
Hon. Samuel Pyne, Mayor of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) highlighted the ongoing programme’s significance:
The expansion of our engagement with City Cancer Challenge through initiatives like the Readiness for Access to Cancer Medicines Programme to Kumasi is a transformative and timely collaboration that will make a lasting impact on our healthcare system. In partnership with C/Can, we are addressing critical gaps in cancer care, from diagnostic infrastructure to treatment delivery. This programme will ensure that our healthcare professionals are equipped with the skills and tools needed to provide continuity of care and life-saving treatments, ultimately improving the lives of cancer patients in Kumasi. Together, we are taking bold steps towards a future where every person in our city has access to the care they need, when they need it most.
In collaboration with local stakeholders, C/Can is committed to deliver needs-based comprehensive interventions that will focus on ensuring the right medicines reach the right patients at the right time. To that end, the programme addresses the improvement of essential diagnostic imaging infrastructure for proper diagnosis of breast cancer within the city. This will be complemented with further capacity development of key cancer care workforce and accelerated digitalization of key hospital processes to enable more efficient multidisciplinary practice. The programme also addresses the improvement of processes for safe handling of oncology medicines in the main treatment centers, including monitoring and controlling related toxicities associated with systemic therapy, with the aim to ensure patient safety and optimal use of oncology medicines in Kumasi institutions.
As the second-largest city in Ghana, Kumasi faces significant challenges in its cancer care ecosystem, including limited diagnostic capacity and suboptimal coordination among clinical departments and across health providers. The C/Can Readiness Programme in Kumasi aims to strengthen the local healthcare system, improve critical infrastructure, and build the capacity of healthcare professionals to deliver multidisciplinary, patient-centered cancer care.
“By enhancing the capacity of local institutions, providing training for healthcare professionals, and improving coordination, we aim to ensure timely diagnoses and more effective treatments for cancer patients, ultimately saving lives.” Diogo Neves, Readiness Programme Manager.
Learnings from Paraguay
The Readiness Programme in Kumasi draws on the lessons learned from C/Can’s work in Asunción, Paraguay, where the programme significantly enhanced the readiness of healthcare services for cancer care. Through process optimisation, infrastructure improvements, including a newly-developed digital solution – C/Can soft – that improved key clinical data integration across clinical departments, and capacity building across the main healthcare providers, this model has demonstrated success and will be adapted to the local context of Kumasi.
In Asunción, the Readiness Programme effectively tackled critical gaps in the local health system, delivering measurable results that have significantly improved the preparedness of key clinical departments to deliver better care
said Beatriz Hornburg, Project Director of the Readiness Programme in Paraguay who added
pathology laboratory capacity was significantly enhanced improving the quality and time to diagnosis and pharmacy departments were refurbished improving their throughput and ensuring more patients can receive the treatment they need.
Key interventions under the Kumasi Readiness Programme include:
- Improving Diagnostic Services: Expanding access to timely and accurate cancer diagnosis through increased diagnostic imaging capacity.
- Optimising Treatment Planning and Delivery: Strengthening treatment planning and coordination to ensure patients receive the most effective treatments at the right time.
- Infrastructure Improvements: Renovating key health services, including imaging, chemotherapy and day care units, to meet international quality standards.
- Technology Integration: Accelerating digitization of processes to improve patient management, coordination, and follow-up care.
- Building Local Capacity: Training healthcare professionals across various specialties to improve care delivery, from early detection to treatment and palliative care.
Local Action, Global Impact
The development of the C/Can initiative has involved close collaboration with local stakeholders since 2018, including the Kumasi City Executive Committee, the Ghana Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service and healthcare institutions. C/Can is also partnering with international technical organisations to bring together local expertise and global best practices, ensuring systemic improvements in cancer care across Kumasi. This collaboration will drive better patient outcomes through timely diagnoses and effective treatment delivery. With the success of the programme in Asunción and its expansion to Kumasi, thanks to the generous contribution from Amgen, C/Can expects to bring the Readiness for Access to Cancer Medicines Programme to more cities in the network, as they continue to work towards improving equitable access to quality cancer care.
The Readiness Programme in Kumasi is part of C/Can’s broader strategy to address context-specific gaps and deliver technical cooperation projects in cities based on a locally-led process. Such a process enables C/Can to mobilize its partners to deliver comprehensive city programmes and ensure other global efforts such as those made by the partnership with WHO to implement the Global Breast Cancer Initiative are coordinated and maximized at local level.
