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| Sunday, 21 April 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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No cardiology unit for Kurunegala Teaching Hospital by Neomi Kodikara Kurunegala Teaching Hospital caters to the North Western Province but lacks a Cardiology Unit to serve the province's estimated half a million cardiac patients. The non-availability of a Cardiology Unit for the Teaching Hospital, which is a referral centre for over 30 peripheral units in the North Western and adjacent provinces creates an acute situation for critical cardiac patients where heart diseases account for 40 per cent of all deaths, annually. Repeated requests to the Ministry of Health has been turned down indicating lack of a funds for new buildings. Even the request to the Presidential Fund to build at least part of the proposed building has been rejected. The North Western province does not receive the benefits of modern equipment and new drugs for heart disease treatment. Dr. K. Rajakanthan, a Cardiologist attached to the hospital claimed that it was partly due to lack of a separate unit for caring for cardiac patients. "New equipment, and required medical cadre could be overcome, what we need is financial assistance to construct at least the ground floor of the proposed six storey building to accelerate the performance at the Cardiology Unit," he said. Over 500,000 cardiac patients are reported from the North Western province, which is the second largest province by population with around 1,400,000, which comes 12.2 per cent of the total population of the country. The Teaching Hospital, Kurunegala which is a referral centre for 27 district hospitals and two base hospitals and a centre for super-specialities including complicated cardiac conditions to adjacent North Central Province and parts of Central, Eastern and Northern Provinces has been identified as the ideal location to establish a centre for heart diseases. At present many cardiac emergencies are treated in general medical wards with inadequate and inappropriate care due to over crowding and grossly inadequate facilities resulting in high death and complication rates. However, today many cardiac patients, who require thorough and appropriate in a well organized unit remain unevaluated and inadequately treated deprived them of optimal symptomatic and survival benefit. Patients requiring angiogram, angioplasties ad valvuloplasties do not have convenient access to these and have to be in a long waiting queue. Some patients who require an immediate cardiac surgery are given dates beyond year 2013. "It is pathetic that many of these patients do not live until they get an opportunity of surgical correction and during this period undergo considerable suffering with poor quality life," he said. The situation is aggravated as the two major cardiology units in Colombo and Kandy are much overcrowded, often inaccessible and is too far for cardiac patients from most parts of the country specially in acute condition. About 80 per cent of the Sri Lankan population cannot afford cardiac care in private hospitals. However, at last considering the importance of a centre, some interested individuals who have observed the misery, anxiety and trauma of the patients and members of their families formed the `Save the Heart Society - Wayamba' with an objective of constructing a cardiology unit using public funds collected from individuals and institutions. A planned six storey building of total surface area of 40,000 square feet with all modern facilities including those for cardiac surgery and cardiac catherization has been approved by the Ministry of Health and by the local authority. The estimated total cost for the construction is Rs. 90 million. Construction of the first two floors has been stipulated with a cost of nearly Rs. 25 million and is expected to be completed at the first stage of the project. The construction of the foundation is almost completed with a Rs. 6 million of public collected funds and a sum of another Rs. 19 million is required for the continuation, which is again to be collected from the public and institutions. The National Health Development Fund of the Ministry of Health requests the donors to make their contributions to the Ac No. 90803565 at the supergrade branch of BOC - Kurunegala to fulfil this task. |
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