Health

Sai Prema Foundation to open new facility in April

February 17, 2020 6:23 am

The Sai Prema Foundation will be collaborating with heart surgeons from overseas to help run its new facility in Nasese, Suva.

The first of its kind facility in the Pacific is set to open in April and will enable surgeons to operate on children with Congenital Heart Defects.

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Foundation General Practitioner Dr Krupali Tappo says they’re already in talks with various surgeons globally.

 

“This is a very specialized area and you need the appropriate personal as well. To begin with, we’ll be having visiting teams coming and operating, Gift of Life International will also come and assist, and we have our international team. We’ll also be inviting the Australian team – the open heart international, the New Zealand team – Hearts for Kids to all come and operate out of our facility.”

Dr Krupali says assistance from overseas surgeons is temporary as they are looking at sending local health specialists for training in India.

 

“Sai Prema Foundation is also working on building local capacity, training our local doctors and nurses and all others that are specialist in the field of pediatric cardiology. So we’ll be sending out some of our local surgeons, doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals to assist our hospital in India for training. You can imagine it takes up to five years to train a surgeon.

Gift of Life International Biomedical Engineer Roy Morr adds he is hopeful they’ll be able to perform hundred of life saving surgeries on an annual basis.

 

“With this facility I can see that 125 surgeries a year and go up to 200 kids a year, and also the Cath lab. Once you have 125 surgeries a year, your personnel are getting trained and are on top of their game.”

The Sai Prema Foundation’s facility and aims to help children from the Pacific with Congenital Heart Disease.

Fiji records about 200 cases annually.