Tanzania: Local Hospital Attends to 16 ,000 Heart Patients

IN a bid to support the government in resolving health related problems, the Heameda Specialised Polyclinic has managed to attend to 16, 000 patients who suffered from heart complications.

The facility, which is located in Bunju, Dar es Salaam, recently celebrated 10 years since it started providing health services, including cardiology.

Speaking on the clinic that was established 10 years ago, the Executive Director of the Clinic and Cardiologist, Dr Henry Mwandolela said, since the official registration, the clinic has been providing services for a variety of diseases including heart disease, gynecology, skin, ears, nose, kidneys and throat.

"Haemeda has grown to focus on providing quality services to the public based on the highest quality ... we have competent specialists as well as state-of-the-art equipment used to treat patients with the highest quality," he said, adding that so far they have served 16000 patients.

Dr Mwandolela said that the goal of the clinic is to be a hospital with the highest status and quality in saving the lives of Tanzanians in the health sector.

"We thank the Government for being with us from the beginning until now; our ambition is to continue to improve outpatient (OPD) services, to improve all necessary tests, to improve emergency services, outpatient services, surgery and intensive care." He explained.

With regard to the condition of heart disease at the Clinic, Dr Mwandolela said 70 per cent of patients were diagnosed with and tested for heart disease, especially high blood pressure.

"This high blood pressure is mainly inherited with parents having a 9 0 per cent chance of having a child with the condition, and the problem begins to appear from the age of 40 onwards and many come to the hospital at a higher stage, which leads to effects on other organs such as kidneys and heart dilation," he said.

He said that health professionals from the clinic have been providing health education and check-ups to wananchi from time to ensure they know their health status