PARENTS, guardians of children with congenital heart diseases alongside specialist cardiologists in Zimbabwe have taken Government to task asking it to come up with measures that will see open heart surgeries being done in the country.
HealthTimes Correspondent
Experts who spoke last Friday in a webinar on congenital heart diseases expressed concern over the thousands of United States dollars spent on heart surgeries which can be done in the country.
The experts said Zimbabwe has the potential to do cardiac-thoracic surgeries which can only be realized fully if Government and the ,private sector join hands in injecting resources in these surgeries as well as diagnostic equipment.
Experts on one end said it was necessary for Government to provide support in the form of staff support and retention, consumables and equipment to ensure that open heart surgeries are done in Zimbabwe.
Presenting on the landscape of open heart surgery in Africa, Dr Simukayi Machawira said the continent ranked low in terms of regular cardio-thoracic surgeries because of staff emigration , lack of Government support and lack of equipment and consumables.
He said Zimbabwe has inadequate equipment but is overally endowed with the required skills such anesthetists, nurses, cardiothoracic surgeons, pharmacists, perfusionists (who operates the heart-lung machine) and rehabilitation services experts.
Dr Machawira said Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare last performed open heart surgeries in 2018. He, alongside other cardiothoracic surgeons , are optimistic that with support, they can resume regular open heart surgeries in country joining the league of other countries in the SADC Region like South Africa and Zambia that still perform these critical surgeries.
With this procedure done in Zimbabwe, the country could save up to USD50 000 per person seeking a surgery in South Africa, and USD 20 000 in India.
In Africa, there are 26 countries that perform open heart surgeries. Of these, only seven only perform open heart surgeries regularly. If you look at the performance of open-heart surgeries in North America, they do 1 222 surgeries per million people. If you look at Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa, we do about 2 cases per million. So, this is about 1/600 (one six hundredth) of the number of surgeries performed in America.
“We can see that we are really lagging behind. We really need a lot of support. The reasons why most projects in Africa fail are that lack of Government support. There are also major financial constraints. There is lack of manpower and expertise and a lot of these people emigrate to get a better quality of life and career development in foreign countries.” Dr Machawira said.
Dr Davidzo Murigo-Shumba, the only paediatric cardiologist at Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo, said Zimbabwe can do these open heart surgery procedures given if Government commits to availing resources for equipment, consumables, and staff retention.
“It is quite sad for those that we diagnose new patients every week with CHD. It is even sadder when you have to tell them they need to raise a lot of money to get life-saving surgery somewhere else. It gets so devastating for the parent,” Dr Murigo-Shumba said.
An Egyptian Doctor Dr Sameh Geress working at Mpilo said he was willing to engage his counterparts in Egypt including Professors dealing with CHDs.
“Open heart surgeries are done in a high cost facility. It needs funds. Definitely, we need the government to step in at Parirenyatwa so that the team at Parirenyatwa starts to work in a regular way. I am from Egypt and have been in Zimbabwe since 2003 trying my best to help patients. With limited resources, I cannot do more services because it is costly.
“You cannot tell Mpilo patients referred from Binga or other remote rural areas that they need USD20 000 for an operation to be done in another country. It is painful. I am wishing to find a way to make this project happen if intentions from Government and other forces improve. I am willing to participate. I have contact colleagues who are professors in cardio-thoracic surgery from National Heart Institute where I learned. They are willing to participate,” he said.
Ms Tendai Moyo, the executive director at Brave Little Hearts urged Government to re-think the suspension of a facility which provided funds for pediatric open-heart surgeries done overseas.
“So government should explore modalities of partnering other African countries for surgeries. Red Cross South Africa Does for free instead of sending our children far to India. We have centers like the luissa guidett that is run By the Italian Doctors who come about 3times a year for taking children for surgeries. Those kind of relationships must be strengthened and expanded,” she said.
Responding to this query, Ministry of Health and Child Care Deputy Director of Non-Communciable diseases (NCDs) Dr Justice Mudavanhu said, “ …regarding NCDs, we are formulating programs to increase awareness and increasing capacity building programs in congenital heart disease.”
However , Mrs Selusiwe Sibanda, another BLH member, proposed that Government could raise funds though sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco taxes as well as taxing those that negligently dispose toxic waste as these are acknowledged to create facilitating conditions for development the of CHD in the foetus.
