A team of five Egyptian experts from the University of Suez Canal, Egypt were recently in the country to discuss issues regarding collaboration in Cardiothoracic surgery with the College of Health Sciences , Makerere University.

A team of five Egyptian experts from the University of Suez Canal, Egypt were recently in the country to discuss issues regarding collaboration in Cardiothoracic surgery with the College of Health Sciences , Makerere University.

The team led by Prof M. El-Badawi and Dr. Ibingira Charles, Dean, School of Biomedical sciences paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba in his office on Friday 29th 2010, whereupon the team revealed that they had already visited Kenya and Ethiopia on a similar mission.

The team headed by Prof. M. Morsi Amin, a Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery revealed that these visits were aimed at assessing the manpower and infrastructure in the respective countries, before deciding on which city they would chose to start with. He disclosed that so far, some Doctors had been picked from Ethiopia and Kenya and they were already undergoing training in Egypt. This he hoped would help brighten the future of cardiothoracic departments in Ethiopia and at Moi University Kenya, and hoped to extend the collaboration to Makerere in Uganda, but are expected to first hold talks with the Ministry of Health as well as Mulago Hospital.

In the case of Uganda, and College of Health Sciences/Mulago Referral Hospital in particular, the team proposed to the facilitate training of Staff interested in the field of open heart surgery, in two ways; Sending their teams of experts to conduct training in Kampala, as they participate in open heart surgery at the College/ Mulago Hospital and Training Ugandan teams in Egypt. In addition they promised to offer open heart surgery to some patients who are currently in need in Egypt.

The experts also proposed to facilitate the establishment functionality of an open heart surgery unit at Mulago Hospital. To achieve this, the team will assess the needs at the College/Mulago Hospital regarding teaching, research and equipment during their visit and see how they can intervene. All the collaboration will be preceded by Agreements with the concerned units.

Prof. Baryamureeba thanked the team for their kind gesture and revealed that their visit had coincided with the Government’s plans to forge relations with partners in the health field. With the establishment of an open heart surgery unit as the eventual goal, he pledged the commitment of Makerere University to further collaborations with the University of Suez Canal, which partnership would eventually benefit all Ugandans.