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THE visit by a team of 27 Indian doctors and volunteers has extended an olive branch to Zimbabwe to send at least 10 children with heart complications for free surgical treatment in India.The Indian doctors, from the Rotary International Medicare project, were in Zimbabwe over the last 10 days during which they performed a multiplicity of surgical operations at Nyanga General Hospital, Mutare Provincial Hospital and Sakubva Hospital for free.
According to the Provincial Medical Director (PMD Manicaland) Dr Patron Mafaune, the doctors performed gynaecological, dental, optical and general surgeries and their programme was oversubscribed — as patients who could not afford these services due to exorbitant costs by private surgeons turned up in droves.
The delegation leader Dr Rajiv Pradhan said gesture to offer the 10 children free surgical operations back home was out of the realisation that chances of success were high in India given the technology gap between the two countries.
“We have extended to Zimbabwe the chance to send 10 children with heart complications for surgical treatment to India. We feel we can do more to help the Zimbabwean children and this is one such way.
“We stand a better chance of saving lives at a tender age if these cases could be referred to us in India whenever they arise,” said Dr Pradhan.
Dr Pradhan said his team was also involved in the training of their local counterparts.
The medical expert said they performed 200 eye surgeries; 250 OPDs, 41 orthopaedic bone surgeries, 72 general surgeries, 62 gynaecological surgeries and 900 dental surgeries.
“We achieved our target and in some cases exceeded that because the demand was high and we had to save lives. This programme was a success and has slashed the backlog of eye and dental surgeries.
“Apart from helping the patients, we had the opportunity to bridge the technological gap through some capacity building training of local surgeons, sisters and hospital admin, which we hope will help them to execute their operations faster and in a much better way.
“We shall also have exchange programmes where doctors from Zimbabwe come to India to further their training,” said Dr Pradhan.
Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Cde Mandi Chimene met the team at Mutare Provincial Hospital on Monday and expressed gratitude over the manner and pace at which they were carrying out their operations.
“I was impressed by the manner in which the doctors are carrying out their work here. They are attending to case that they can handle competently and refer further those that should be done over a longer period of time.
The people are getting a good service,” said Cde Chimene.
Dr Mafaune said: “The mission went on well and we even surpassed our own target. We were looking at 800 patients, but it as things turned out some areas were oversubscribed, for instance dental and eyes treatment.
“We have realised that a lot of people are coming through and as a ministry we are going to reach out to these people because there is definitely a need. People not coming to our institutions does not mean they are not there, we need to go out there a do outreaches,” said Dr Mafaune.
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