Article Sidebar
Published:
Sep 1, 2022DOI:
10.4314/gmj.v56i3.2Keywords:
Article Details
Articles published in the Ghana Medical Journal may not be published elsewhere without the consent of the publishers. Request for consent for reproduction of material published in the Ghana Medical Journal should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. The publisher of this Journal reserves the right of copyright of all articles published in the Journal. It should also be understood by all authors that articles approved for publication in the journal are also deemed for publication online by the publisher.
Ghana Medical Journal is an Open Access journal and applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on the Creative Commons website (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) to articles and other content published in the Journal.
Main Article Content
Application of the hub and spokes model in improving access to cervical cancer screening in Ghana.
Abstract
Objective: To examine the contribution of lower-level health facilities in increasing access to cervical cancer screen-ing in the North Tongu District.
Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. The Cervical Cancer Prevention and Training Centre (CCPTC) of the Catholic Hospital, Battor, served as the hub, and six health facilities (3 health centres and 3 CHPS compounds) served as the spokes. From April 2018 to September 2019, the well-resourced CCPTC trained 6 nurses at selected Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) / Health Centres (HCs) (spokes) to provide cer-vical cancer screening services. The nurses, after training, started screening with VIA and HPV DNA testing.
Participants: A total of 3,451women were screened by the trained nurses. This comprised 1,935 (56.1%) from the hub and 1,516 (43.9%) from the spokes.
Main outcome measure: The detection of screen positives.
Results: The screen positives were 19.4% (375/1935) at the hub and 4.9% (74/1516) at the spokes.
Conclusion: We have demonstrated that a hub and spokes model for cervical cancer screening is possible in limited resource settings. Designating and resourcing a 'hub' that supports a network of ‘spokes’ could increase women's access to cervical cancer screening. This approach could create awareness about cervical cancer screening services and how they can be accessed.
