“People lost trust in Yemeni doctors because of previous mistakes in medical practices by some doctors. This has made people lose trust in Yemeni medicine in general. There are no laws by the government to manage hospitals and making them responsible for their mistakes.”

Yemen Post: Heart problems are on the rise in Yemen, why?

Moahmmed Al-Dahmashi: It is due to the lack of the services patients receive when they are being treated. Another reason is that Yemeni people do not have the proper awareness to understand the danger of such a sickness. When people do not know how and why they get heart problems, how can you expect them to self guard themselves from such a sickness.

YP: Patients who travel outside Yemen for treatment seem to always get better and get different results than what they receive here, why are Yemeni doctors wrong?

MA: People lost trust in Yemeni doctors because of previous mistakes in medical practices by some doctors. This has made people lose trust of medicine in Yemen in general. There are no laws by the government to manage hospitals and making them responsible for their mistakes. Both sides are to blame for this problem. From the one side people do not have enough awareness and from the other some doctors are not qualified. Low education is key to improve the current situation. In rural areas, people face bigger problems in the medical sector, and hospitals and clinics offer low services. People have almost no awareness whatsoever. These mistakes are overlooked by the authorities and the doctor's syndicate. 

YP: How many Yemenis suffer from heart problems?

MA: I don’t have statistical sources, but the information that I have deals with the number of visitors that cardiac centers receive every day. On average the cardiac section of Al-Thawra hospital conducts 7-10 heart surgeries every day. In other centers and hospitals there are about 10-15 open heart surgeries that occur every day in all. 

YP: What are the main reasons for the increase of heart problems?

MA: Lack of knowledge on the importance of exercise. Yemenis do not exercise and it is not part of their daily schedule. Also, the lack of knowledge of the amount of nutrition in the food they eat. People do not look at the harm that some food might give them. When Yemenis eat, they do not give the body the proper amounts of vitamins and minerals that are needed. The proper components are not received by the body, which in result raises the chances of people getting heart surgery. Foods in Yemen are rich in fat, and people smoke very much as well. Many people smoke more than two packets of cigarettes a day. These are some of the main factors for the increase of heart problems in Yemen.

YP: Does the ministry of health support specialized surgeons from all angles?

MA: The ministry supports the cardiac center in Al-Thawra hospital. The ministry is doing a good job in supporting surgeons, but their progress is not enough. The Ministry of Health needs to coordinate and support surgeons more to ensure that they stay in Yemen and help the country rather than leave to another country to live. Moreover, the ministry needs to do a better job in observing the hospitals and making sure that the people are getting the right treatment. 

YP: Qat chewing, does it really have a negative effect on the heart?

MA: No, I think that Qat chewing does not have a strong negative effect on the heart. However, Qat most of the time comes with smoking, and smoking is a major reason for the increase in heart diseases. One negative thing that Qat does cause is the increase in the number of heart beats and this is a risk factor.

YP: Specialized doctors prefer to leave their own country and live abroad, is the government to blame for this?

MA: The reason they decide to leave their country is because the government is not willing to offer them good salaries. When they travel abroad, they get better salaries, which in return improves their living conditions.

YP: Are Yemeni hospitals fit for conducting heart surgery?

MA: There are a couple of hospitals that are fit for conducting open heart surgery. From the governmental hospitals there is Al-Thawra hospital, and from the private hospitals there is the Science and Technology Hospital. These hospitals are fit and completely equipped to conduct open heart surgery. This makes it easier for locals to get treated inside Yemen rather than having to travel outside the country.

YP: Last week, the Ministry of Health in Jordan came up with a law making the surgeon responsible for surgical mistakes; do you think this should also be practiced in Yemen?

MA: This is a very important law to apply, and will help in making people trust hospitals more on the one hand and being treated in the country on the other. Yes, there are mistakes that are done by the Yemeni doctors, but there are also mistakes that cannot be avoided by the doctor. I mean mistakes that the doctor cannot be accountable for due to the sensitivity of the surgery. 

YP: How can we make Yemeni patients trust Yemeni doctors?

MA: By improving the medical services. The government should make a plan to involve itself and build the bridge between patients and doctors. The government can conduct extra health training for the doctors and make them go through intensive courses every while or so. The media also needs to play a strong role in this, and strengthen the link between people and doctors.

YP: Medical graduates from Yemeni universities, do they graduate ready to enter the medical field and practice medicine?

MA: Yes. Most of the famous Yemeni surgeons who are now employed in major hospitals in the Gulf all graduated from Yemeni universities, so our medical education in very strong when comparing it to other countries. Yemeni surgeons working abroad are known to be hard workers, and always receive the highest scores in updated examinations. That success means that their university education was helpful and strong.

YP: We hear about all the foreign doctors who come to Yemen, are they really qualified, and do they deserve the respect and hype they receive by Yemenis who need treatment?

MA: There are many hospitals that invite foreign doctors to Yemen in order to give patients better treatment. Yemenis think that the foreign doctors will do a better job than the local ones. This is because Yemenis feel that foreigners are always better and will consider them so even if they are not. Yes there are some good foreign doctors that come to Yemen, but not all doctors that come to Yemen are specialists. Yemenis tend to say to each other, "because he is a foreign doctor I will go to him for treatment," not caring if he is qualified or not. 

YP: Why does the government employ foreign doctors in the medical fields and ignores its own people in the process?

MA: This trend deepens the bad situation the country is going through. What the government is doing will surely make it difficult for people to trust local doctors. When locals see that the government itself is the one who is calling foreign doctors to come to Yemen, they tend to believe that the government knows best and wants to replace locals ones with foreign doctors. Instead of the government employing foreign doctors, it should hire such foreign doctors as trainers to train Yemeni doctors and make them improve their situation. This will help the country in the long run. 

YP: Do you have any final comment?