Heart Institute Acquires New UGX 7bn Equipment

The Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) has commissioned new equipment. 

A catheterization laboratory commonly referred to as a CathLab is a specialized heart theatre in which minimally invasive heart procedures are performed either to diagnose or treat heart conditions, and according to Dr John Omagino the UHI Executive Director, they have acquired the new one at a cost of 7.9billion shillings.

In October, the country’s only run catheterization laboratory was decommissioned after it had been in use for over ten years.

Speaking at the commissioning event on Tuesday, Omagino said the new equipment is state-of-the-art and it’s planned to work on 10,000 patients requiring complex surgeries, almost double the number of procedures handled by the decommissioned equipment during its operational lifespan.

The Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said that while the new machine presents an opportunity for the facility to conduct more surgeries, it is still a drop in the ocean considering the long waiting lists and the burden. 

She cites children saying that annually, the country records about sixteen thousand babies with congenital birth defects each year and have of them at eight thousand require procedures where a CathLab may be required for care.

Meanwhile, Omagino says having a CathlLab has saved Uganda millions of dollars spent on surgeries abroad as currently, the institute can handle 95% of adult cases and 85% of pediatric cases. He for instance notes that the decommissioned machine is estimated to have saved Ugandans up to one hundred and seventy million dollars which would have otherwise been spent in India or any other destination out of the country.

Meanwhile in Uganda, one in four adults live with hypertension which is a precursor to heart disease. Experts predict more and more Ugandans will be requiring treatment for heart disease and yet at the moment tertiary care for the disease is mainly accessed at the institute.

Omagino says there is a plan to open sixteen regional heart centres to cut the crowding at the National Uganda Heart Institute. 

Ugandans who cannot access the UHI CathLab only have an option of smaller CathLabs in the private sector at Nakasero and Kisubi hospitals.