BY DEVOTA MWACHANG`A
10th September 2013
Boosts capacity to test heart ailments and need for surgery Doctors say treatments abroad to drop by 60 pct
Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, MNH Executive Director Dr Marina Njelekela said the machine has been fixed at the hospital recently and will be tested for the first time early next month.
The laboratory’s equipment will help observe heart nerves, confirm the presence of a suspected heart ailment and indicate if a patient is to undergo surgery or not.
Cardiac catheterization can also help install a pacemaker which functions like a battery to improve performance of the heart.
“This centre has modern and quality tools special for heart diseases,” she said, adding: “The catheterisation laboratory reduces by 60 percent referrals to India, where the government has been transferring a big number of patients because it couldn’t treat them in the country.”
Dr Njelekela however said the MNH Cardiac Centre is facing a shortage of staff. “It needs at least 365 staff, while currently we only have 121. Despite the government’s directive to employ more, there is still a shortage of medical personnel in this field in the country.”
She added: “We are making efforts to employ professionals who will specialise in anesthesia, operating blood nerves and heart surgery for children. We aim to improve our services. This centre will be a great comfort to the country and will greatly reduce the burden on the government caused by referring patients outside the country for heart treatment.”
However, she said the hospital seeks to partner with foreign institutions experienced in treatment of heart ailments to increase expertise.
According to her, the government spends about USD 10, 000 per single heart patient treated abroad while at MNH Cardiac Centre the cost is USD 6, 000.
MNH’s head of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine Dr Robert Mvungi said according to research, heart ailments have increased in Sub-Saharan Africa, while patients with blood pressure has increased to 30 percent. Other diseases contributing to heart diseases such as diabetes have increased by 5 and 10 percent while patients with heart valve problems have gone up to between 20 and 30 percent.
“We attend between 350 and 500 patients with heart diseases a week and most of them are taken in for surgery while others simply get counseled. We hope that in the coming three years we will manage to reduce the number of patients transferred abroad by 60 percent,” said Dr Mvungi.
Finance and Plan Director of the Centre, Agnes Kuhenga said the construction of the Cardiac centre and fixing of the equipment has consumed 32bn/-. “The construction was financed by the government in collaboration with the Chinese government. Tanzania has contributed 16.4bn/- and China 15.6bn/-.”
On May 2008, the Cardiac Surgery Centre officially started conducting heart surgery under the supervision of doctors trained in India and Israel. At least 105 patients have undergone surgery in its first year of operation and to date the number of patients who have undergone heart surgery has reached 453.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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