Mulago stuck with heart patients

Over 500 people with heart disease cannot access services at the Uganda Heart Institute (UHI), Mulago. Most of the affected people are children who are to undergo surgery.

Speaking to New Vision, Dr John Omagino, and the UHI Director said that the institute requires sh10b to be able to handle all heart cases.

"We have a lot of children on the waiting list but our budget is limiting us to carry the operations. Parliament had promised to increase our operation budget, we prepared the children but we did not get the money, it is disturbing because we have all the specialists but cannot do anything because of money," noted Omagino.

Omagino also noted that they are struggling with space challenges as they have only four Intensive Care Unit beds.

When asked what the ministry of health is doing to cater for these patients, Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Ministry of Health public relations officer, said they are aware of the challenges at the Heart Institute but their hands are tied.

"We are aware they have space challenges because Mulago is under renovation. We hope works can be done soon so that they can have pending operations done," noted Ainebyoona.

According to a 2018 report by Uganda Heart Association, cardiovascular diseases are second to infectious diseases causing death in Africa, accounting to 11% of the total deaths.

"In 2012, about 18 million people died from cardiovascular diseases; representing 31% of all global death (WHO 2014). Heart Attack is the second leading cause of death in Africa preceded by communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. The in-hospital mortality following heart attack is as high as 10%," reads the report.