Ministry of health has disclosed that 10 children from Zambia have undergone Cardiac specialized surgery in Israel and that all are doing well and being monitored by staff members at the University Teaching Hospital – UTH.
20 more children from the 40 who have been screened with heart problems at UTH are expected to undergo lifesaving cardiac surgery and cardiac cephalization in Israel this year 2019.
Ministry of Health and Save a Childs Heart Foundation of Israel had in 2017 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen the health sector in Zambia.
Speaking during a meeting on 8 April 2019, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Kenneth Malama said government is responsible for mobilizing of resources to fly children and their parents companied by health workers to Israel while Israel government through the Child Heart foundation take care of the expenses relating to the care of present and post operations.
“If we do not look after our children, the ambitions that we have as a nation cannot be attained. It is therefore important that children with heart problems are taken care off as children are the future leaders. The future of this country depends of all Zambians contributing to Social and Economic wellbeing including children,” he said.
And Save Childs Heart Foundation representative Simon Fisher said the MoU that government signed with his organization is to ensure that Zambia becomes sustainable in pediatric cardiac surgery and Pediatric cardiac cephalization within a period of 5 to 10 years through the Zambian Medical professionals.
“As we are going through this long journey, we have to take care of the children as part of the MoU and obligation. We will continue developing capacity by way of training and offering training opportunities for physicians beyond South Africa,” Fisher said.
