Jinja regional referral hospital (JRRH) has patterned with the Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) for a cardiac surgery health camp targeting children with heart diseases. The 5-day health camp was launched on Monday June 17, and ends Friday June 21, 2024 at the Jinja hospital.
The free initiative attracted a joint team of surgeons from JRRH and UHI, carrying out heart cardiac surgeries. Eight successful surgeries of children born with holes on heart have been conducted.
Serving as the first of its kind, the health camp is targeting challenging children in Busoga, Eastern, and the Central regions to ensure normal growth.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, Dr. John Omagino, the executive director of Uganda Heart Institute, said an approximate number of 1.35 million babies are born with heart defects each year across the globe. But in Uganda, around 15,000 children are born with heart defects each year.
“Those heart defects are leading to an approximate death of 17.9 million lives each year across the globe. In Uganda, the heart disease significantly contributes to the death of our people with the mobility rate,” Dr. Omagino told reporters.
He said that in the ongoing camp, 11 children were selected, and eight children had successfully been operated. He highlighted an urgent need for specialised care and interventions towards the challenged minors.
Meanwhile, Dr Alfred Yayi the executive director of Jinja regional referral hospital stated that the hospital still need support from the ministry of health, finance and public services in terms of additional equipment, human resources especially in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Dr Yayi expressed a lack of necessary medicines and health supplies in the hospital that would aid in the effectiveness of health extensions to locals.
“The health camp is going on well, but we would like to use this opportunity to inform the Ministry of Health and Finance that as Jinja Hospital, we still need more finances to support our activities. We have an overwhelming number of patients from across the Eastern region and actually the central region,” said Dr Yayi.
The mothers and caretakers of the children being operated expressed pleasure, commending the government for extending the significant health services to the financially grappling individuals.
“We have been struggling for money to come for operation of my child. We had to collect over 30 million shillings, which we failed to get but my boy has been operated without any coin,” a mother said.
The operated children were both girls and boys between the ages of 3 months and four years.
