Parirenyatwa Hospitals Performs 41 Heart Surgeries In 2024

Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals has reportedly performed 41 successful heart surgeries in 2024, the highest number of such operations conducted in a single year since 2016.

In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Terence Mautsi, the public relations officer for the hospital group, said that they aim to increase this number to between 100 and 150 in 2025. Said Mautsi:

Open-heart surgery has progressed this year. We have performed 41 surgeries in total. This is important, being the highest number performed per year in comparison to other years since 2016 and we are planning to double the number next year, resources permitting.

The aim is for the unit to become a fully fledged one, which is able to fulfil national obligations, including teaching specialists, and this can only be possible by increasing the number of procedures done at the hospital.

The hospital is aiming at having a 10-bed cardiothoracic ICU (intensive care unit) and HDU (high dependency unit); this will allow smooth functioning and we are engaged with at least three cardiothoracic units to train percussionists.

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Mautsi said they were unable to meet their target due to occasional shortages of essential consumables. He said:

The ideal number of patients to keep a single cardiothoracic surgeon competent, of 150 per year, has not been reached.

There are many factors which contributed to us not reaching the target. There are times when we ran out of consumables and it took a long to procure due to the process involved. We had instances where the resources were available but patients failed to turn up due to fear.

The patients need to be admitted into ICU after the procedure; unfortunately, we have one general ICU for the whole hospital.

We should have an independent ICU for cardiothoracic surgery; this will allow us to function more effectively.

Mautsi said that there are currently 200 patients on the Parirenyatwa waiting list, with the waiting period being six for those who agree to undergo surgery.

In addition to the 41 successful heart surgeries, two patients unfortunately lost their lives due to postoperative complications. He said:

One patient developed an infection and succumbed almost two weeks after surgery and the other patient was bleeding postoperatively and unfortunately we were unable to secure the relevant blood products due to shortages.

We aim to do at least 100 to 150 next year. We are engaging with the Ministry of Health and Child Care as our parent ministry, the hospital administration, sister hospitals, local industries and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to reach our target.

Surgical camps allow us to do more patients; the last camp we did 10 patients in a week, so we are planning to do more camps. We are engaged with other units in Africa to get personal training as percussionists.

Mautsi added that 12 children underwent successful surgeries this year, with 11 of the patients diagnosed with congenital heart disease and one suffering from rheumatic heart disease.

More: Pindula News