Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. HEALTH lobby group, the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) has hailed the government and its partners for making efforts in health service delivery which saw the recent successful children’s open heart surgeries.
The surgeries were jointly conducted by medical teams from Egypt and Zimbabwe.
Speaking to NewsDay Weekender, director Itai Rusike expressed hope that the operations would continue as there is always a need for such from time to time.
“We would like to commend the Ministry of Health and the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and partners including Comes, The Avenues Clinic, NOIC [National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe], The Harare Rotary Club as well as the Gift of Life for the successful heart operations conducted last week despite the limited resources in the ailing health system,” he said.
“While the resumption of open heart surgeries is a welcome development, we want to remind the government of the state of basic health services delivery and say the whole system from the primary health care level to the quaternary level, where these complex procedures are performed, requires due attention. This includes a full complement of appropriately trained health professionals.”
Rusike, however, said last week’s surgeries were a step in the right direction.
“It’s good to start realising what we had done, it seems to be a start-stop phenomenon and yet within the population health the requirement is continuous,” he said.
“There will always be faulty hearts at birth, diseased hearts, damaged hearts from high blood pressure, diabetes, endocrine problems or other causes.”
Zimbabwe first performed an open heart surgery during the late 1990s with support from the Lima Linda (USA) Team.
Speaking at a meeting during the operations at Parirenyatwa Hospital, Health and Child Care deputy minister Sleiman Kwidini said the development was proof of strengthening relations between Egypt and Zimbabwe, with the latter taking the opportunity as a learning curve.
“Skills are not just being applied, they are being shared, transferred and multiplied,” he said.
“This is not only life-saving, it is capacity building. Together we are creating a more sustainable model for advancement in our own soil.”
For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe Follow Africa-Press
