Surgery campaign launched to assist patients with serious pathologies

Maputo, 4 Mar (AIM) – Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), Mozambique’s largest health facility, on Monday launched a surgery campaign aimed at assisting 200 patients, part of a group of 1,500 people who have been on the waiting list for over six months.

The 200 selected patients are facing serious problems, and they will be submitted to various surgeries, namely: ophthalmology, ENT, maxillofacial, orthopedics and gynecology. There are also those who will be submitted to plastic surgery as well as general surgery.

Speaking to reporters, António da Costa, the HCM clinical director, said “we’re paying more attention to the pathologies that need to be observed urgently because they put patients’ lives at risk. That doesn’t mean that other surgeries aren’t important, but they can wait”.

He explained that there are two rooms already set up for the 200 planned surgeries.

“However, these campaign surgeries will not take space away from elective surgeries. This is an ongoing process. In the various specialisms, we have patients who have been waiting for more than six months”, he said.

He added that over the last three months, as a result of the mass unrest, sparked by protests against the general election results, widely believed to be fraudulent, “we received patients with traumatic pathologies.”

Da Costa also announced that around 2,152 patients were admitted to the HCM between 25 and 28 February, 1,560 of whom were suffering from general illnesses, corresponding to 72 per cent, and 592 from trauma, corresponding to 28 per cent.

“There were also 16 deaths, corresponding to one per cent”, he said.
(AIM)
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