Buy Heart Machine, Muhwezi Orders

By John OdyekHealth minister Brig. Jim Muhwezi has directed the Uganda Heart Institute to ignore bureaucracy and buy a US$84,000 (sh150m) machine used to test the human heart for any problems (echo-cardiography).Muhwezi, who paid a visit to the institute on Friday said he wanted to see the institute treat the heart patients so that country stops spending huge sums of money on people going abroad for heart treatment. He said the buying of equipment for the institute would be reorganised to avoid delays, which had led to loss of lives.“That machine should be ordered once and for all. If there is a problem of shareholding, we are going to review that to have one command centre,” Muwhezi said. Officials of the heart institute said there was money to buy the machine but approval was required from Makerere University, Mulago Hospital, Uganda Heart Foundation and the Ministry of Health who are trustees of the institute.The current echo-cardiography is 10 years old, is overworked and handles 30 patients daily.Dr Maurice Rutakingirwa, the head of cardiology division, said the echo-cardiography makes sh600,000 a day and every patient was charged sh15,000 for its use.Muhwezi directed that the heart-lung machine that had been idle for the last two years at the institute be tested and put to use. The machine keeps a patient alive during a heart operation. Muhwezi said planning for replacement and having standby machines at the institute was poorly done.“An arrangement must be put in place to replenish the machines. It is terrible to find a machine that makes money has no paper,” he said. Muhwezi had just been shown a electro-cardiography, a machine that monitors electrical activity of the heart and detects heart attacks.The machine uses special papers from USA which is sometimes in short supply. Muhwezi said he would meet officials of the institute and requested for a list of the needs of the institute.Ends