Shetty donates cardiac unit

Indian heart surgeon Dr. Devi
Shetty has signed an agreement with the Cayman Islands Government to donate a
cardiac unit to the George Town hospital.

The introduction of a cardiac unit,
which will include a catheterisation laboratory, would mean that patients with
heart conditions will no longer have to fly off island for treatment.

Dr. Shetty and Minister of Health
Mark Scotland signed the agreement on Thursday night, 11 November, after the
launch of Cayman’s first national health conference.

“With the opening of this cardiac
unit, the people of these islands for the first time have quick access to care
that will, undoubtedly, prevent and limit the progression of cardiac conditions,”
said Premier McKeeva Bush at the signing of the agreement.

The announcement of the new heart
unit was made by government minister Mike Adam on Mr. Bush’s behalf to
delegates of the conference at the Ritz-Carlton hotel because the premier had
been delayed returning from St. Lucia, to which he had travelled on Thursday on
a whistle-stop trip with emergency supplies for victims of Hurricane Tomas.

Mr. Bush described the donation of
the cardiac unit and catheterisation, or cath, lab as a “blessing” for the
health sector and thanked Dr. Shetty, saying the cardiologist was “not just
talking about development, not just promising, not just having another meeting,
but he has delivered”.

He added that by making the
donation, Dr. Shetty, and his family and board, were “ready to show their worth
to Cayman”.

The new cardiac unit will be funded
and managed by the Narayana Cayman University Medical Centre, a “health city”
which Dr. Shetty is proposing to build in Cayman once the government has
changed certain laws and regulations to allow Indian medical staff to work locally
and to place a $500,000 cap on pain and suffering damages in medical
malpractice suits.

Cardiac catheterisation labs
produce images of blood flow in the arteries and allow surgeons to clear
blockages using stents and other devices.

Lizzette Yearwood, CEO of the
Health Services Authority, which runs the Cayman Islands Hospital, said it
would take about eight months to install the new cardiac unit. “It will be a
modular unit and will be installed in the OR,” she said.

The hospital’s operating theatre
would have to be renovated to accommodate the cardiac unit.

Dr. Shetty’s staff would operate
the unit and charge for cardiac procedures, while the Cayman Islands Hospital
would get revenue from the arrangement by admitting the patients and doing the
necessary follow-up critical care, Ms Yearwood said.

People have had to be airlifted
from Cayman for the simplest of heart procedures in the past, but once the
cardiac unit is opened, patients can be treated locally, Minister Scotland
said.

Dr. Shetty thanked the Cayman
Islands Government for “giving us this opportunity to take part in this
exciting journey to make this world a better place to live. We could  not
hope for a better partner than what we have here.”

The surgeon, who was Mother’s
Theresa’s cardiologist and who runs several hospitals in India, had earlier
given a presentation at the conference, explaining that the global US$4.5
trillion healthcare industry is recession-proof and will continue to grow.