Feature: Ghanaian cardiac doctor hones skill in China, vows to save more lives

China's dream of providing quality and affordable cardiac surgery for Ghanaians and helping to house a cardiac center in the northen belt is progressing gradually.

Dr Yaw Adu-Boakye, a Physician Specialist in Cardiology at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), is among a bevy of medical practitioners who have received skills training in China and are now applying the acquired knowledge to save lives in their homeland.

Adu-Boakye, who has completed the first part of a one-year training he is undergoing at the Guangdong General Hospital's Cardiovascular Institute, is among a team from the famous institute who are currently conducting surgeries at the KATH in Kumasi, Ghana's second largest commercial city.

Sponsored training for Ghanaian medical workers in China's Guangdong Province is to enhance the capacity of the surgeons to respond to cardiac cases across the mid and northern part of the country.

For Adu-Boakye, the training he is receiving in China to become a specialist in pacemaker and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI), a non-surgical technique for treating obstructive coronary artery disease, would help get Ghana's cardio interventions to pull-off.

His immediate plan after his return to Ghana is to be actively involved with other experts to kick-start vibrant pacemaker programs locally, with the support of the local cardiac team at KATH.

"Currently I have the skill for the pacemaker and I am doing the PCI and I am hoping that after I have done that and return, I am going to start this in Ghana and somebody else might get an opportunity to do another area which probably I didn't do and then we can pull forces together and I am sure we will be able to get to where we want to get to," Adu-Boakye told Xinhua in an interview.

"And indeed that is why I am back here, after the six months training, I am now coming to put my skill acquisition to work here. So what I will say is that people should look at KATH as the hub of pacemaker interventions in Ghana because we are beginning it here," said Adu-Boakye, who described his skill acquisition in China as enormous and his Chinese colleagues "very receptive and accepting."

Professor Lin Chunying, a Consultant Cardiologist and a leading member of the 12-member Chinese delegation to KATH from July 6 to 24, hopes that more Ghanaian doctors will get further training in China to enhance their service delivery.

She was sad to learn that some machines donated to KATH had to lie idle because of the absence of experts. "But now you have the skill and the machines so it is no problem for you now. So in the future the patients do not need to go to Accra to do pacemaker; they can do it in Kumasi," she told Xinhua.

Dr Huang Jinsong, a senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon believes with the right support, Ghanaian doctors can save more lives in Ghana.

Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute is also helping to build a cardio center at KATH and the process is advancing. Endit