SSRN Cardiac Centre

The SSRN Cardiac Centre, located within the SSR National Hospital complex in Pamplemousses, is Mauritius's national public cardiac surgery facility and one of the most significant achievements of the island's public health system. The centre performs open-heart surgery — coronary artery bypass grafting, valve replacement and repair, congenital heart defect correction, and aortic surgery — entirely free of charge for Mauritian citizens and residents. For a middle-income island nation, the availability of cardiac bypass surgery in the public sector without patient cost is genuinely remarkable.

The cardiac surgery programme was established with the assistance of international specialists and now operates with a team of Mauritian cardiac surgeons who completed their training in the UK, France, and South Africa. The catheterisation laboratory performs diagnostic coronary angiography and angioplasty. The cardiac ICU manages post-operative patients and those presenting with acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, and arrhythmia. An outpatient cardiology clinic manages the follow-up of surgical patients and provides non-invasive cardiology services including echocardiography and stress testing.

Patients requiring cardiac surgery in the public system are referred through the general cardiology departments at Victoria Hospital or SSRN Hospital, and are placed on a waiting list managed by clinical urgency. Emergency cardiac surgery is available immediately for life-threatening presentations. The cardiac centre also trains the next generation of Mauritian cardiologists and cardiac surgeons through a post-graduate training programme.