Cost-effective Weekend Clinics a boon
Venkat Raman
Pilots and cabin crew on airlines flying to and Fiji are no longer surprised to see Auckland-based Interventional Cardiologist Dr Seif El-Jack and his team on board every Friday and again on every Sunday on flights returning home.
They must now be aware that the expert Interventional Cardiologist has been undertaking this weekly mission to the South Pacific country since October 2017 to examine scores of patients, determine their heart condition and perform angiograms and angioplasty when necessary at Heart International clinic located at 12 Commercial Street in Nadi.
What they may not be aware is that his team’s presence in Fiji has helped hundreds of Fijians to get timely attention at affordable costs.
Increasing victims
An increasing number of people, including those as young as 30 suffer from cardiovascular diseases in Fiji and are at the risk of losing their lives since the country does not have resident heart surgeons and Interventional Cardiologists to perform prescribed procedures.
Statistics on mortality rates due to heart attacks and related problems are sparse and vary. According to ‘Health Grove,’ a health website, even youngsters are susceptible to cardiovascular diseases.
“The peak mortality rate due to heart-related diseases is 7131.9 deaths among women and 6952.5 deaths among men per 100,000 population,” it said.
Expensive alternatives
Rich Fijians, able to afford surgery and angioplasty and stenting procedures travel to Australia and New Zealand for treatment.
India offers a cheaper alternative but lengthy travel and accommodation for patients and their accompanying families could be offsetting factors.
Unfortunately, therefore, the poor in Fiji suffer and succumb to diseases of the heart.
The Best Option
The best option therefore is to train doctors and nurses in Fiji to treat patients without delay.
Teams of doctors from New Zealand and Australia visit four or five times a year and stay up to a week to treat patients, often free of cost.
This however, does not answer the long-term issue of self-sufficiency in treatment.
Dr El-Jack and a few others are keen to promote local expertise.
As well as examining and treating many patients every weekend, he is training locals to examine patients, determine the need for angiogram and perform angioplasty.
While an angioplasty procedure in Auckland could cost up to NZ$ 30,000 Heart International is able to offer the same procedures at a fraction of the cost in Fiji.
“A normal angioplasty requiring one stent would cost F$ 12,000 (about N$ 8100). We have capped the cost of multiple stents to a total of F$ 15,000 (about NZ$ 10,100),” he said.
About Dr Seif El-Jack
Commencing his career in the UK, Dr Seif El-Jack (of Sudanese origin), completed his General Cardiology training at the Greenlane and Auckland City Hospitals. Thereafter, he undertook an Interventional Cardiovascular Fellowship at the William Beaumont Hospital, Michigan, USA.
He is currently a General and Interventional Cardiologist at the North Shore Hospital and Director, Cardiovascular Unit at the Waitemata District Health Board.
Dr El-Jack is a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, The American College of Cardiology and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (USA).
He evinces keen interest in Academic Cardiology and leads a busy Interventional Cardiology Research Programme at North Shore Hospital, which actively participates in international and local research with several relevant publications in the field.
Dr El-Jack’s first contact with Fiji occurred in 2011 when he visited Suva to perform stenting procedures at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital. Since then he has been undertaking annual visits with the support of the ‘Friends of Fiji Heart Foundation,’ until October 2017, when he commenced his weekly clinics in Nadi.
About Heart International
The Nadi Clinic operates with the support of an Auckland-based team with Cardiologists visiting weekly. It is a dedicated clinic performing heart screening to assess the risk of heart problems, it undertakes several procedures including Blood tests, Heart Rhythm Tracing (ECG), Exercise or Stress tests to assess for blood vessel blockages in the heart, Ultrasound scans to check heart function (echo test), Angiography, a gold standard procedure to accurately diagnose blockages in blood vessels and Angioplasty (stenting) procedures to treat and open up blocked vessels.
Next Issue: More about Heart International and success stories.
Photo: Dr Seif El-Jack
(Picture Supplied)
