Riya Bhagwan 
[File Photo]
Remote and outer island communities are set to benefit from expanded kidney care services, as The Kidney Hub prepares to roll out a major outreach programme this year.
Director Dr. Amrish Krishnan says Chronic Kidney Disease affects about 10 percent of any population, with around one percent progressing to kidney failure. With Fiji’s population now over 930,000, this means more than 93,000 people may be living with CKD, and about 930 at risk of kidney failure.
Dr. Krishnan says many in remote areas remain undiagnosed due to limited testing, making early detection critical.
To address this, The Kidney Hub plans to introduce point-of-care creatinine testing in outer islands before mid-year, allowing kidney function to be checked on-site.
“We are planning to conduct point-of-care creatinine testing in the outer islands before mid-year. This approach allows us to test kidney function on-site instead of sending samples to the mainland. Once we identify people with kidney failure, we can work with them on appropriate treatment plans.”
Point-of-care testing allows immediate results without delays caused by transporting samples to mainland laboratories.
Dr. Krishnan also hopes to decentralise specialist kidney services in the future, including dialysis and other treatments closer to island communities.
“I hope that we can eventually decentralize specialist services, taking dialysis and other treatments out to the islands, and you might ask, ‘How do you do that without machines or electricity?’ But there are treatment methods for kidney failure that require very little technology.”
He adds the initiative will significantly reduce the financial and emotional burden on families who currently travel long distances for treatment.
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