four-member paediatric cardiac team from Qatar Charity has partnered with the paediatric cardiac team of the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC) at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) to perform life-saving cardiac procedures for 28 children suffering from congenital heart diseases, marking a significant milestone in the ongoing collaboration between the two institutions.
The four-day humanitarian mission represented the Qatar Charity team’s fifth visit to Ghana overall, but its first mission hosted directly at KBTH, with procedures carried out using advanced, minimally invasive cardiac catheterisation techniques at the Centre’s newly commissioned bi-plane cardiac catheterisation laboratory.
The visiting medical team comprised lead Paediatric Interventional Cardiologist, Dr Iyad Al-Ammouri; Senior Paediatric Cardiac Anaesthesiologist, Dr Hasan Ismail Mahmoud Amar; Catheterisation Lab Technologist, Mr Mohammad Faisal Hijazi Abu Rabie; Cathlab Technology Assistant, Mr Maysarah Nafi’ Mosleh; and Senior Cathlab Technician, Mr Kulindwa W. Kasubi from Tanzania.
They worked alongside NCTC’s clinical team, led by Paediatric Cardiologists Prof Nana-Akyaa Yao and Dr Della Adzosii, together with Specialist Cathlab Anaesthesiologist Dr Sika Edinam Lumor. Together, the joint team successfully treated patients ranging from five-month-old infants to a 23-year-old medical student, addressing a wide age spectrum of congenital heart conditions.
Director Highlights Capacity-Building as Core Objective
According to the NCTC, the interventions primarily involved repairing abnormal cardiac connections and defects, commonly referred to as “hole-in-heart” conditions, alongside balloon dilation procedures for constricted valves and blood vessels.
Left unaddressed, these conditions typically manifest in severe breathing difficulties, recurrent chest infections, poor feeding, failure to thrive, or eventual heart failure in affected children.
The Director of the NCTC, Dr Kow Entsua-Mensah, emphasised that the visit was structured around more than the immediate treatment of patients, placing strong priority on local capacity building to secure sustainable, long-term paediatric cardiac care in Ghana.
He explained that this was achieved through hands-on training and knowledge exchange between the visiting team and local doctors, nurses, radiographers and anaesthetists.
“One of the main aims of doing this is capacity-building and enhancing our practice, it is very important for us to grow our practice, and having the team here has been helpful in opening new frontiers for us,”
Dr Kow Entsua-Mensah
Dr Entsua-Mensah further expressed optimism about the future trajectory of the partnership, noting that both institutions are looking beyond this single mission toward a sustained annual arrangement.
He said the ambition is for the collaboration to continue on a yearly basis, helping Ghanaian children with specially selected complex cases while also supporting the NCTC’s own clinical team in managing cases independently between mission visits.
Historic Step for Ghana’s Healthcare System
Prof Yao, speaking on the significance of the mission, described the successful use of the newly upgraded catheterisation laboratory for such specialised procedures as a historic step forward for healthcare delivery in Ghana.
She further commended Qatar Charity for ensuring that all treatments were provided entirely free of charge to the beneficiary families, easing what would otherwise have been a significant financial burden for many of the affected households.
Looking Ahead to A Sustained Partnership
Both the NCTC and Qatar Charity have indicated an intention to build on this latest mission to expand access to essential cardiovascular care for Ghanaian children going forward.
Central to this ambition is a continued focus on equipping local clinicians with the skills and confidence to independently manage complex paediatric cardiac procedures during the periods between the visiting team’s missions, ensuring that the benefits of the partnership extend well beyond each individual visit.
With the NCTC’s newly commissioned catheterisation laboratory now demonstrated as capable of supporting advanced paediatric interventions, the collaboration between the two institutions is expected to remain a key pillar of Ghana’s efforts to strengthen specialised paediatric cardiac care within the public health system.
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