Due to the absence of specialist cardiology service provision in Mannar in Sri Lanka and the resulting long list of patients waiting to see a cardiologist in Jaffna or Vavuniya, Dr Mayooran and Assist RR, with the help of donations of well wishers, set up a free cardiology and echocardiogram clinic in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Northern Provincial Council in Mannar between 13th-17th Nov 2017. This clinic was conducted by Dr Richard Brown, Dr Gemma Parry-Williams and Dr Mayooran Shanmuganathan (cardiology doctors from UK). Over the course of 5 days, 200 patients of all ages were seen by these three cardiologists. These patients would otherwise have had to wait months for an appointment and travel 100s of kilometres to see a cardiac specialist, often involving an overnight admission to Mannar hospital and inter-hospital transport the next morning. During this clinic, the doctors assessed their symptoms, clinical signs including blood pressure and performed an echocardiogram on all the patients. Patients with heart conditions were given follow up appointments with a general medical physician in Mannar District General Hospital. A handful of patients were referred to the nearest paediatric cardiologist, interventional cardiologist and cardiothoracic surgeon for further evaluation of their symptoms with view to an interventional procedure or surgery. Assist RR remains grateful to the donors who contributed towards the cost of accommodation food and local travel for the participating doctors, and to the volunteer doctors, who flew to Sri Lanka from the UK using their own funds and volunteered to provide the free service. As we need more funds to conduct these clinics in the future, please kindly consider donating through the following link:
Click here to donate towards Cardiology and Echocardiogram Clinics
Feedbacks from the volunteer doctors and views of a few patients are given below:
Gemma Parry-Williams feedback Richard Brown feedback Wala Mattar feedback
Views of a retired fisherman from Pesalai, Mannar
Views of a male patient, Mr Anthony from Mannar
To see more photos of the clinic, please use the FB link below:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155189823965872&l=a1bcc6b9ab