Muhimbili National Hospital’s (MNH) newly Cardiac Treatment and Training Centre targets to care for 60 per cent of heart patients that are currently referred abroad for treatment when it starts operating at full capacity.
HEAD of Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) Dr Robert Mvungi shows reporters the newly installed Catheterization Laboratory in Dar es Salaam. The government acquired the state-of-the-art facility recently at 3.6 billion/-. Left is Executive Director of the hospital Dr Marina Njelekela. (Photo by Mohamed Mambo)
It costs about 10,000 US dollars (about 16m/-) to conduct a heart surgery in India but the centre is offering a better deal for patients whose costs are incurred by the government. It will conduct the surgery at just 6,000 US dollars (about 9.6m/-).
“We are only operating at half capacity since we are yet to have in place all required workforce and equipment.
We hope to cover the rest in three years to come,” Head of Department of Cardiovascular Medicine Dr Robert Mvungi told journalists who had paid a brief tour at the facility on Monday.
If all goes as planned, the number of patients referred abroad, particularly to India, for heart treatment and surgery is likely to decrease significantly as most of the treatments will be available at the centre, according to Dr Mvungi.
He, however, insisted that the facility would not be able to cater for all heart patients given its limited capacity against increasing number of people with heart complications. The centre has 88 rooms and three operating theatres.
Patients on referral from other hospitals will be treated at highly subsidized costs while others will have to dig deeper in their pockets to access treatment at the world class facility.
Just recently, the government acquired a Catheterization Laboratory at the cost of 3.6bn/- which enables diagnosis of heart diseases locally.
“In the past patients had to be transported to India to just undergo such tests,” Dr Mvungi, flanked by MNH Executive Director Dr Marina Njelekela, said.
“A total of 453 patients have undergone tests and surgeries at the facility since 2008,” Dr Njelekela said.
The hospital’s boss complained, however, that the facility faces a critical shortage of workers, operating with just 121 staff out of a required workforce of about 365.
“We are glad however, that we have been issued with permits from the government to hire some 100 workers to make up for the shortage,” Dr Njelekela said.
Due to high costs associated with heart treatment, she hinted also that the hospital was in discussions with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) on how patients can be covered to foot the costs.
Dr Njelekela also hailed the government of China for supporting the facility by providing equipment and funds amounting to 15.6bn/-.
A total of 32.9bn/- has been invested by China and the government of Tanzania in the life saving facility.
By ALVAR MWAKYUSA, Tanzania Daily News
