The Ministry of Health on Monday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Healing Hearts North West, a voluntary group that is here to treat people with heart defects.The minister, Agnes Binagwaho signed the MoU with Hal Goldberg of the volunteer group.Healing Hearts North West is a group of health care professionals from Washington that is partnering with King Faisal Hospital to deliver cardiovascular care and also deal with prevention and early treatment of Rheumatic Heart disease.Among the elements stipulated in the partnership includes sustainability through helping with training of Rwandan medics in the area of cardiology, prevention and detection of heart defects and following up on patients among others.The cardiologists have been partnering with the ministry for the last three years and this time, 16 patients with heart defects were operated upon.Binagwaho said the team will be conducting heart surgery for cases that can’t be handled and treated in Rwanda.She added that partnerships have been implemented with four groups from different parts of the world, to treat and conduct surgery for heart patients.“We are going to train cardiologists as we currently have only five in the country. Right now we have one studying in South Africa but it will take him about six years to master the expertise. Doctor Joseph Mucumbitsi, the Chairman of the Rwanda Heart Foundation, said so far no national survey has been carried out to ascertain the state of heart defects in the country apart from one that was conducted in Gasabo District.“However, on average, 15,000 to 20,000 people need cardiac surgery basing on the survey that was carried out in Gasabo District. Since the establishment of these partnerships, 300 people with heart defects have been operated upon, the majority of whom were children,” he said.Goldberg commended Rwanda’s medics for their improvement in handling heart defect patients, citing that building capacity is the answer to such cases.Open heart surgery costs about USD 20,000; however, the patients in Rwanda receive it free of charge.
