Ata time when Zimbabwe’s public health sector has only one perfusionist supportingcardiothoracic surgeries,two medical personnel from Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals are set to undergo training atMuhimbili University Hospitalin Tanzania. This move is expected to ease the workload of the country’s lone perfusionist and gradually build up the number of trained personnel needed for a functional and sustainableheart surgeryprogram. Perfusionists play a crucial role during heart surgeries Speaking to HealthTimes during therecent open-heart surgeriesperformed on 10 Zimbabwean children, Parirenyatwa Hospital’s Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mr.
Simukayi Machawira, . I am happy to say we have secured training for two perfusionists at Muhimbili Hospital University in Tanzania,” said Mr. Machawire.
“Hopefully we’ll get another training post for another perfusionist in Kenya. And hopefully we’ll continue to lobHe added, “I think once we have established other centers there will be trainees from those stations.” On the issue of staffing in their cardiothoracic unit, Mr. Machawire said they would continue training as they go.
“As we have already said, we have possibly three perfusionists in training. The nursing personnel we have here, what we just need is to intensify the rate of training so that we can fill all the posts that are required,” he said. He also highlighted the limitations posed “So as we’ve alluded to earlier, it’s (cardiothoracic surgery) a multidisciplinary therapy.
It’s not a single person who will say, ‘I’ll do this.’ You have the surgeon, you have the cardiologist who diagnoses. “Then you need the perfusionist who runs the heart-lung machine. You need a specialized theatre and theatre nurses.
You need intensive care units,” he said. “At the moment at Parirenyatwa we just have one intensive care unit that addresses the whole hospital, not just cardiothoracic. Ideally we should have an independent cardiothoracic ICU with ten beds.
Then that way we can operate every day without any impediments. “So this is what we are working towards. We want a fully functional unit so that maybe in ten years’ time or even less we can have a centre of excellence.” You must belogged into post a comment.
Source: HealthTimes
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