The National Kidney and Research Treatment Center which will provide affordable dialysis treatment and counseling to kidney patients is expected to open by mid of next year.
The government has allocated $1m in the 2017/2018 national budget to open the center which will be headed by lone nephrologist, Dr. Amrish Krishnan.
Dr Krishnan says the center will be constructed on a land provided by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in Tamavua.
He says a board has also been designated which will oversee the operations of the center.
According to Dr Krishnan, there are more than one thousand people in the country who need dialysis but are not able to afford it.
“With the initial set of machines that we get which is about 10 of which 2 will be reserved, we looking at about 40 to 50 patients who should be able to come on to that program right away. One of the things that we do recognize that with the reduction in price per treatment , there will be increased demand for dialysis and we will be faced with a situation where we won’t have enough machines for the patients so we are looking at some plans how we can start and keep adding machines as we go along. The aim the facility will be able to house 20 machines.”
The youngest person currently undergoing dialysis treatment is a thirteen-year-old boy while the oldest was a woman in her late 70’s who passed away earlier this year.
