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Muhimbili to undertake heart operations
2007-07-18 09:10:29
By Patrick Kisembo, Dodoma
The government yesterday announced plans to conduct heart surgery within the country. Tanzania has been sending heart patients abroad, mainly to India.
Presenting his budget estimates to Parliament, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Prof David Mwakyusa, said heart operations would be undertaken at the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI), despite the prevailing shortage of necessary facilities.
``The government plans to add more heart operating theatres at the Muhimbili National Hospital’s children’s ward,” said the minister.
He said preparations were already underway at the country’s biggest referral hospital.
``A heart surgery theatre and an Intensive Care Unit room belonging to MOI are being kept ready for use. Some of the surgery facilities have already been purchased,`` said the minister.
The facilities include surgery beds, heart lung machine, echocardiogram and magnetic resonance imagining, he said.
According to the minister, about 16 Tanzanian trainees out of 26 who were sent to India under a heart surgery training programme have completed their studies and returned home.
``The rest are still in India. However, they expect to graduate in November 2007,`` said Mwakyusa.
However, the Parliamentary Committee on Social Services has criticized the decision to utilize MOI theatres for heart surgery operations despite the critical shortage of space needed for expanding the institute.
The committee chairman, MP Omari Kwaang’w, said a recent MOI report indicated that the institute lacks space to erect vital infrastructure. He urged the government to provide land for the purpose.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Minister for Health, Dr Ali Tarab, has appealed to the government to ban the importation and circulation of dangerous Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) drugs that threaten the lives of HIV/AIDS patients.
There has been an outcry from people living with HIV virus over circulation of life-threatening ARVs, which are alleged to bring a lot of side effects on users. These include reduced breast and buttocks sizes, causing short-sightedness and reducing body immunity.
``The government needs to act on these complaints. It should ban the circulation of questionable drugs,`` said Dr Tarab.
The MP asked the government to speed up research studies on controversial HIV/AIDS drugs so as to ensure the distribution of safe drugs and enhance accessibility to the needy.
``When the ARV free distribution programme started, we planned to reach 400,000 people, but latest statistics show only 50,000 people have been reached so far,`` he said.
Presenting his budget, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Prof David Mwakyusa said the government planned to open 500 new health centres and dispensaries for the distribution of ARVs across the country.
``We expect to increase the number of the people receiving ARVs from 77,066 in April 2007 to 150,000 in December 2007, and 200,000 at the end of 2008. The idea is to mitigate the impact of the disease and assist sufferers fight opportunistic diseases,`` according to the minister.
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