ONGWEDIVA - Ongwediva Medipark Hospital has once more reached another milestone by establishing a cardiac catheterisation laboratory, the first of its kind in the northern regions. 

The catheterisation laboratory, which is also known as a cath lab, is an examination room in a hospital or clinic with diagnostic imaging equipment used to visualise the arteries of the heart and the chambers of the heart and treat stenosis or abnormality found. 

Previously, all patients with heart problems –primary heart attacks or heart defects were sent to hospitals in Windhoek, which is over 700 kilometres away. Medipark and other private and state hospitals in the northern regions could only offer electrocardiograph (ECG) tests and stabilise patients before they are eventually sent to Windhoek.
  
Medipark Director Dr Tshali Iithete said although heart conditions are prevalent in the northern regions, his hospital had to send patients to Lady Pohamba Private Hospital and Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek.
 “But these [heart attacks] are emergencies, if an attack comes, you need relief within a specific period of time. All we could offer was a minimal help,” said Iithete.

Now the hospital has a Cath Lab unit, equipped with among others an angiogram which allows doctors to visualise vessels around the heart. Apart from angiogram, insertion of pacemakers and removal of clots from the heart can now be carried out at Ongwediva Medipark. 

The Cath Lab unit has a team of two cardiologists, nurses and other staff complements.
  “All nurses went for training at Roman Catholic Hospital (RCH), and when we started on the 12th November [2018], the team from RCH came down. They are really helpful. We have a good working relationship with Roman Catholic Hospital,” said Iithete.

Iithete maintained that although Medipark is a private hospital, the Cath Lab unit will also attend to state patients, as per the memorandum of understanding between this private hospital and the Ministry of Health and Social Services. 
The Cath Lab unit is just one of numerous milestones reached by the Ongwediva based private hospital during its 12 years of existence. 

Several units were introduced of which the pediatric Intensive Care Unit is the latest addition. It was also at Medipark where the first kidney transplant in Namibia was performed, the hospital also added a dialysis unit and not long ago, a contemporary maternity ward.  

According to Iithete, the total number of specialists at this teaching hospital is 48. This includes 36 resident specialists and 12 visiting specialists. These numbers make Ongwediva Medipark the hospital with the highest concentrate of specialists in Namibia.