JKCI shines, treats 20,000 patients in three months

JAKAYA Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI) treated 19,371 patients with heart-related diseases between January and March, this year alone. The institute said in a statement in Dar es Salaam yesterday that 18,481 of the beneficiaries were out-patients, with 890 in-patients.

The institute said that 105 patients, 53 adults and 52 children, underwent catheterisation surgery. The institute’s triumphal record comes as the government works tirelessly to reduce the costs of treating Tanzanians with heart complications abroad.

The government announced last year that the number of heart patients seeking treatment abroad had dropped by 80 per cent during the previous financial year.

The reduction in referrals abroad has helped the government to save millions of money it could have spent in overseas treatment. In 2015/2016, JKCI dispatched 85 patients with heart complications abroad, but in 2016/2017 the number dropped to 17.

The number of patients re-corded at the institute between January and March, this year, gives promising future. During the three-month period, JKCI established eight camps, providing medical services in collaboration with its partners from Germany, America, Israel, Australia, India and United Arab Emirates, the statement says.

“The major challenge that we face is that most of the patients we receive their heart complications have already reached an advanced stage, we therefore call on the public to develop an attitude of regularly checking their health,” the institute advised in the statement.

According to the statement, the government has set the system of footing treatment bills, with the first category including patients who use health insurance, the second for those paying bills from their own pockets and the third including those contributing part of the cost and the government paying the balance.

The statement elaborates that the fourth group covers patients whose bills are fully funded by the government. The heart treatments are offered to all patients from Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar.