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‘209 heart patients went to India last year’
2005-07-13 09:04:35
By Pastory Nguvu, Dodoma
Over 200 heart patients were sent to India for treatment last year, the government said in Parliament on Monday.
Deputy Minister of Labour, Youth Development and Sports Mudhihir Mudhihir said an average of five, ten and 50 heart patients went to South Africa, Britain and India during each quarter of the year.
He gave the figures when answering a question by Ussi Yahya Haji (Chaani, CCM) on behalf of Health Minister Anna Abdallah.
Mudhihir said 209 heart patients were sent to India for treatment in 2004.
Haji had wanted to know how many heart patients were being treated abroad and the government’s plans to ensure that people with heart problems were treated in the country.
Mudhihir said about 3.6bn/- was spent in sending heart patients for treatment abroad from 2000 to 2004.
Plans were currently under way for an ultra-modern heart hospital to be built in Dar es Salaam with the assistance of the Japanese government, the deputy minister told the House.
He said the Tanzania Heart Institute had started building a hospital that would make it possible for open-heart surgery to be conducted in the country.
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