Fiji needs about 500 pacemakers every year, more doctors who can carry out pacemaker implantation and people to provide technical support for pacemaker services at the CWM Hospital.
Renowned General and Interventional Cardiologist Dr Vijay Kapadia highlighted this on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan when he was asked about the need for pacemakers, which are small devices that send electrical impulses to the heart muscle to maintain an appropriate heart rate and rhythm when a person’s heartbeat becomes too slow or too fast due to various health problems.
Dr Kapadia says pacemakers are among the most cost-effective devices in medicine as their implantation does not require high-powered technology but only a minor surgery, where an incision is made below the left clavicle under local anaesthesia, and the device is implanted.
The cardiologist says several pacemakers used to be donated by visiting teams from Australia, and a Pacific Island Pacemaker Service team was also established.
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He also says the team is trained in pacemaker implantation and would bring about 30 to 40 free devices each year, but Fiji needs up to 500 of them.
Dr Kapadia says they have also negotiated with Medtronic, one of the largest medical device companies in the world, to obtain the cheapest pacemakers available.
He says that while they have the capability and services to carry out pacemaker implantation, only two doctors in the country can perform these procedures in the public system, and more doctors need to be trained for it.
He also says that technical support is required, as the pacemaker service involves follow-ups, and there is a shortage of this support.
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