Indian Association fails to get patients for heart surgery

Operating room: Uganda Heart Institute surgeons conduct a unique open-heart surgery known as coronary artery bypass grafting in January 2023. COURTESY PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Mr Rao Mohan, the chairperson of the Indian Association of Uganda, said when they screened the more than 250 applicants, only 46 met the criteria
  • Mr Rao Mohan, the chairperson of the Indian Association of Uganda, said when they screened the more than 250 applicants, only 46 met the criteria

The Indian Association of Uganda says they have failed to get the required 100 Ugandans to take to India for free heart surgeries.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Rao Mohan, the chairperson of the Indian Association of Uganda, said when they screened the more than 250 applicants, only 46 met the criteria.
He said the rest failed to prove that they have heart diseases, which require surgery.
However, he said they are waiting for Uganda Heart Institute to send them the patients who deserve to be flown to India for treatment.

“Not every patient who comes requires heart surgery. We do a lot of screening, we have to be sure that the patient will be able to recover and survive after the surgery but those who came failed to prove. This week we are flying eight of them,” he said.
Mr Mohan said as an association, they do not approach the heart institute to give them the patients.  Instead, he said, the Institute is supposed to refer the patients to them with a recommendation letter showing the kind of ailment and the association identifies which hospital to handle the patients in India.

Institute speaks
However, Dr Micheal Oketcho, a senior consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at the Uganda Heart Institute, said they have never received any official communication from the association regarding patients who need surgery.
He said the institute is overwhelmed by patients who need surgeries because they have limited space for ICU beds, theatres, staffing and financing.
“We have over 400 patients who need heart surgeries every year but not more than 100 are treated. Around 8,000 children are born with heart defects every year but not all these come to the heart institute for treatment,” he said.