November 16, 2021
BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
The House of Parliament has yesterday the 15th of November 2021, entered in a partnership with the Country Manager for the Roche Biotech Company based in Basel, Switzerland Dr. Philip Anderson for construction of an ultra-modern cancer treatment center in the country.
Welcoming the guests, the Chairman of the Health Committee in Parliament, Hon. Moses B. Jorkie, said the engagement day was very important for them as they were having members from the sub-region dealing with cancer cases in this country and other sub-region.
“I am here to welcome you and to explain a little bit to members why we are here. Mr. Sallieu Jalloh happens to be a Sierra Leonean. He is working with this group. I had a called few months back that he has a very important assignment which is to be done by him. They have come to realize that cancer is a very big burden globally and Sierra Leone is an exception and they have planned to build a cancer center in this country.”
He added that it will benefit everybody in this country as a result of that and he had already spoken with the ministry. He said he is trying to solicit help or ideas from parliament to embrace this fine idea by especially getting the buy in of the the parliamentary health committee.
Assuring Roche, the Leader of Government Business in the Sierra Leone Parliament, Hon. Sahr Mathew Nyuma said he was happy for Roche for making the presentation to them because when he looked at the presentation in the form of a booklet, he was impressed with few of the words especially in the area of providing patients with new treatment options.
He pointed out that the Report had talked about the people’s center on the business, quoting the report that “shaping a sustainable healthcare ecosystem creates access in innovating care for patient irrespective of where they live” he said.
He observed that if Roche is taking the health care to every sector it must be based on a form scale of preference where they think people are really dying. He said such as decision must be data driven.
Presenting the Report to the Members of Parliament, Dr. Anderson highlighted their findings and reiterated the need for setting up a cancer center in the country. He said they have already been in contact with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation for the establishment of the cancer center, indicating that cancer business is a “team business”.
“We work in partnership across the health care spectrum. We can win the fight addressing these key barriers; awareness of disease and symptoms are essential for screening and early detection, diagnosis of the disease can be complex, but is vital to ensuring the right treatment choice, healthcare capacity requires trained teams working together with the right equipment to provide the best chance for successful treatment”, Dr. Anderson revealed.