JKCI impresses Ugandan lawmakers

Dar es Salaam. A parliamentary committee from Uganda has called for East Africa Community member states to share information about health services to prevent the government from spending a lot of money on sending patients oversees for treatment.

The call was made by the chairperson of parliamentary committee on social services, Ms Cecilia Barbara, when committee members toured the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI) yesterday.

“Before our visit we weren’t aware that Tanzania offers this kind of services (referring to cardiac services at JKCI)…I think there is a need for EAC partner states to share information,” said Ms Barbara.

She pointed out that Uganda had been spending a lot of money on sending patients with heart complications to India and South Africa for treatment. However, she revealed that Uganda would be sending patients to JKCI for treatment. She added that EAC member states had enough health facilities, but the problem had always been information sharing.

“We have learnt that there are enough facilities in EAC…if we improve our ability to share information I am sure we will reduce the burden of sending patients oversees for treatment,” stressed Ms Barbara.

She also noted that Uganda planned to construct a cardiac institute. “We are here to learn from experience…there are many people in Uganda, who have heart diseases,” she explained.

Statistics show that since the establishment of JKCI, a number of patients sent abroad for heart related diseases between 2012 and 2016 has decreased from 159 to 4 patients respectively.

Meanwhile, the JKCI executive director, Prof Mohammed Janabi, said the institute faced an acute shortage of medical supplies due to a growing number of patients.