Heart disease patients shy away from Cardio Centre — Dr Siriboe
The Executive Director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC), Dr Lawrence Agyemang Siriboe, says the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has triggered patients’ reluctance to use the facility for fear of contracting the virus.
He said the development had caused some patients to lose their lives.
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Dr Siriboe made this known when Engisys Limited, a biochemical company, donated personal protective equipment (PPE) to the centre last Friday.
The items included face masks, hand sanitiser and N95 masks.
“Because of the fear of COVID-19 we have a lot of our patients who are presently afraid to come to the hospital. So even when they're sick and they need our care, they're afraid.
“Unfortunately, we have had about two patients who refused to come to the hospital because of COVID-19, and by the time they were eventually brought in, it was too late to help them,” he stated.
Preventive protocols
People with heart conditions are more vulnerable to COVID-19 as they stand a higher risk of death and to some extent a greater risk of contracting severe complications.
Dr Siriboe, however, assured the public, especially patients, that the centre had some of the best preventive protocols for COVID-19 so there was nothing to fear.
“What we want to assure people of is that, all the preventive protocols are observed at all the hospitals that we have, especially the National Cardiothoracic Centre,” he stressed.
Dr Siriboe explained that authorities at the facility had put measures in place to ensure that all health protocols were duly observed to prevent any infection at the centre.
“The wearing of face mask is compulsory; washing of hands under running water and the use of hand sanitiser are mandatory. We also do, as much as possible, observe social distancing protocols. So patients should not be afraid to come to the hospital,” he entreated.
COVID-19 and cardio centre
The executive director of the centre also stated that the centre, among others, had suffered a great deal of financial loss as a result of the drop in the number of patients, due primarily to the pandemic.
“This pandemic, I will say, has affected everybody in the whole world and Ghana has not been left out, and of course the NCTC has also not been left out. We have been negatively affected in several ways, Dr Siriboe stated.
He added that “we have to spend a lot more money buying PPE than what we would normally have bought and this has affected our finances a lot.”
He said the centre was virtually shut down during the lockdown, adding that “we had to close down the centre. So there was virtually no generation of funds that would support the centre. So it has had a lot of negative impact on the centre”.
The executive director stressed that the centre had not observed as many infections among patients as seen in the West.
Ghana’s COVID-19 case count
Ghana recorded its first two COVID-19 cases on March 12, this year.
COVID-19 active cases as of yesterday stood at 470, with 34 new recorded cases. There have been 45,618 recoveries also, while 299 patients have sadly yielded to the disease.
Heart conditions
Heart diseases are usually very life-threatening and therefore seeking medical attention early is often advised.
Some of the conditions prevalent in Ghana include blood vessel diseases such as coronary artery disease, heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias) and heart defects people are born with, commonly known as congenital heart defects.