Timely Blood Gas Tests Can Save Lives
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday September 19, 2016 16:13
The company manufacturers portable blood gas analysing equipment that has a lion’s share of the market in Botswana.
South African-based Africa regional manager, Nirvana Naidoo says her company has decided to embark on a social responsibility initiative for Botswana in December where they will be imparting education to healthcare stakeholders in the country.
Naidoo says performing blood gas tests timely can be very helpful to medical specialists who would benefit from knowing the exact level of oxygen in the blood, which can give them a clear picture about the intervention to make.
Naidoo’s company OPTI Medical Systems is focused on manufacturing and marketing portable analysers for the measurement of time-sensitive diagnostic tests such as blood gas content and blood chemistry analysis.
The analysers are used in hospitals, emergency centres, ambulances, helicopters, airplanes, pulmonary centres and in any location where time-critical diagnostic testing is needed.
“This time it is not about sales. It’s all about public education, as we will be interacting with stakeholders and experts, reviving the knowledge about handling patients who need to have blood gas analysers ahead of medical help.
“Doctors cannot just guess how much of oxygen you have; anaestacian needs to know the blood gas content to decide how much mediation they should give you,” explains Naidoo.
She says Botswana is one of the few places in Africa where the density of blood gas equipment is impressive.
Their workshop to be held at Masa Centre will have a blood gas expert in the country, users of blood gas equipment sharing experiences as well as the manufacturers’ representatives.
Naidoo is particularly concerned that across Africa there continues to be high cases of babies’ deaths that could be avoided. “It can make a lot of difference if nurses in rural areas can be able to immediately know the blood gas content of babies checking into the clinics ill.
“It is a refresher workshop on handling the blood gas test and we hope the effects of that reach out initiative will be felt in the medical field locally.
We feel it is our duty to interact with stakeholders to help them get the best out of the equipment that they have bought from us. We are committed to after sales’ service,” she says.
Opti Medical USA have partnered with a local company Floritech that distributes their product line as well as doing the after sale care.
While in Gaborone recently the regional manager travelled to various medical centres in and around Gaborone to observe the proper use of the equipment and offer any advise on the best results that can be derived from the equipment.
Floritech managing director, Sylvia Mthimkhulu, one of the few citizen medical engineers, says they have presence in more than nine centres in Botswana and aim to increase their footprint with time.