| Rokiah Mahmud |
MARKING its 15 years of providing specialised cardiac care in the Sultanate, Gleneagles JPMC commissioned a new Coronary Care Unit (CCU) yesterday.
Dato Seri Paduka Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah, the Deputy Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Jerudong Park Medical Centre (JPMC) officiated at the opening ceremony.
The new eight-bed facility will expand the capacity of Gleneagles JPMC and enable better patient low and streamlined services.
Congratulating Gleneagles JPMC for opening the new CCU, the deputy minister said it is heartening to note that majority of Gleneagles JPMC’s 150 staff are Bruneians, and hoped that the heart centre would continue to build upon its successes and eventually expand its services to neighbouring countries and beyond.
In his welcoming remarks, Dr Peter Tay, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Gleneagles JPMC, explained that since its establishment in 2002, Gleneagles JPMC has been at the forefront of medical innovation and technology from the first coronary stenting and coronary artery bypass graft surgery performed in 2003, to the surgical implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) in a patient with severe heart failure in 2014 and the more recent trans-catheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in 2016, a procedure which did not require open heart surgery.
“In 2013, we introduced 3D electrical mapping of the heart for electrophysiology and ablation to treat cardiac rhythm abnormalities,” he said.
“The number of cardiac patients treated at our centre has increased through the years. In 2016, Gleneagles JPMC performed over 1,000 angiograms, more than 550 percutaneous interventions and in excess of 150 open heart surgeries.”
Gleneagles JPMC has been working closely with the Ministry of Health in providing tertiary cardiac services to patients in the Sultanate. This close collaboration has resulted in joint care of cardiac patients and improved response time for cardiac emergencies, the CEO noted.
The ward capacity expansion is an initiative in Gleneagles JPMC continuous effort to provide high standards of cardiac care and services and to be a centre of excellence for cardiovascular diseases in the Sultanate and beyond.