TENDENCY by most
patients not seeking regular medical care contributes to rising cases of
heart diseases in the country which are potentially preventable.
The Director of Clinical Support Services
at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI), Dr Delila Kimambo,
disclosed on the sidelines of echocardiogram training (heart surgery
using ultrasound) conducted by the institute through the support of
Merck in Dar es Salaam, yesterday.
The training brought together 80 heart
specialists and other hospital attendants in the region operating in the
cadre to obtain knowledge on the best practices of attending to
patients and detection of heart problems through the procedure.
According to Dr Kimambo, most patients often go late for medical care while the diseases are already in a critical stage.
“Most people usually start by visiting our
district, regional and other hospitals with specialised heart services
before coming here, we found it crucial to conduct the training to add
up to the knowledge they already have in the area of echocardiogram. By
building capacity of medical staffs, it also helps in early detection of
diseases and in turn saves a lot of cost to be incurred by the
government,” said Dr Kimambo.
She pointed out that the session is also
going to create a good consultation network in case the physicians face
challenges when attending to patients. Considering the fact that the
response of the participants was appealing, she said they hoped to make
the session continuous and extend it to other parts of the country to
facilitate delivery of health services to patients.
JKCI Director of Cardiology, Dr Peter
Kisenge observed that the training went hand in hand with pacemaker
device implantation to 21 patients suffering from heart failures and a
problem of electrical conduction system through the support of
‘Madaktari’ Africa.
Dr Kisenge noted that the camp which
started on Monday and ended yesterday saved over 800m/- to be spent by
the government for treatment abroad. “We attended to patients whose
heart beats were as low as 40 per minute and those with heart failure of
less than 35 percent...we implanted special batteries identified as ICD
and CRTD to prevent them from facing sudden deaths,” said Dr Kisenge.
He established that the problem is caused
by severe alcohol consumption, smoking, poor lifestyles and old age,
calling on people to adopt healthy lifestyles to overcome attack of
heart diseases.
A specialist from the Department of
Hypertension Clinic at the Amana Hospital, Dr. Natalius Kapilima
applauded JKCI for the initiative to increase their knowledge on the
procedure. With the knowledge they have obtained, Dr. Kapilima said they
intend to bring in new machines which will boost efficiency in delivery
of heart surgery by ultra sound.
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