More heart operations coming

The CHCML is an organisation which utilises state of the art facilities to provide paediatric and adult open-heart surgeries to underprivileged citizens in Trinidad and Tobago. The programme was initiated to afford impoverished nationals access to first-rate medical services at prices subsidised by the Government. The original arrangement provided ten adult open-heart surgeries every month and ten paediatric open-heart surgeries every other month.

Health Minister, John Rahael, visited recovering patients of open-heart surgeries at the Cardiac Unit, Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, (EWMSC) on Friday. The Minister then held a brief press conference at the CHCML office on the hospital’s compound, to update the public on the new programme at the EWMSC. Rahael said from the month of July, 20 cardiac surgeries would be performed monthly which represents over double the amount done in previous months. He said with the co-operation of doctors, nurses and other medical staff, the cardiac unit would be aiming to increase surgeries to about 60 per month. Rahael said within the next two months, the Intensive Care Unit at the EWMSC would increase its accommodation, with the additon of six paediatric beds and ten adult beds. The Minister referred to a female patient currently recovering from surgery, who was originally carded to have surgery within the next nine months. He said, the patient may have lost her life if she had waited her turn on the list. “What we are doing is saving lives,” he said.

Charles Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) said through the programme, “The waiting list for paediatric open-heart surgeries has been considerably reduced.” He said to date approximately 1,800 surgeries have been completed under the programme. Adding that the mortality rate for patients who undergo surgeries at CHCML is three percent, which was comparable to statistics at the world’s best hospitals whose mortality rates for open-heart surgeries vary from three to 14 percent.