Mozambique: MRI machine arrives at Beira Central Hospital – Watch

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Mozambique: MRI machine arrives at Beira Central Hospital – Watch

3:16 CAT | 22 May 2023

Screen grab: Hospital Central da Beira / Facebook

Assembling the newly arrived Beira MRI machine will take about two months, in a work to be carried out by technicians from China, from where the machine was purchased, and national specialists.

The central region of the country now has one MRI machine, which will contribute to significantly improve medical and drug assistance in the treatment of complex diseases, such as brain tumours.

Magnetic resonance imaging is one of the so-called auxiliary diagnostic tools used by health professionals to make diagnoses and find out what the patient is suffering from and provide the appropriate treatment. These tools also include ultrasound, X-rays and CT scanning.

Last Saturday, the Beira Central Hospital (HCB) received the best of these auxiliary means, that is, an MRI machine.

“The device will help us diagnose the most complex diseases, which the other diagnostic tools we already have are unable to do,” explained Nelson Mucupo, general director of Beira Central Hospital. “For example, brain tumours are very difficult to verify and, in these cases, neurosurgeons operating on a brain tumour need many details, such as their size and depth, and only an MRI machine can provide this information,”

Since there was no other MRI machine outside Maputo, the country’s capital, patients from the centre and north were forced to travel to the capital for diagnosis.

In Sofala alone, an average of 20 patients were transferred to Maputo Central Hospital (HCM) for MRI imaging.

“Most of the patients had brain pathologies, mainly cancers whose degree of dissemination we had no way of determining locally, so as to decide whether or not they could be operated on, and the solution was to transfer them to Maputo,” Mucupo said.

The device cost about ,5 million US dollars, disbursed by the government.

“The Ministry of Health had scheduled the acquisition of this MRI machine for next year, but, given the increase in complex diseases and the high costs of transferring patients, its purchase was accelerated,” Mucupo related.

Assemblage of the Beira MRI machine will take about two months and will rely on technicians from China, where it was purchased, and national specialists.