Coast hospital to conduct kidney surgeries
A team of doctors from Coast Provincial General Hospital with their colleagues from Kenyatta National Hospital preparing a patient for surgery on July 21, 2015. FILE PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- He said the hospital has lined up five more patients with different heart conditions for surgery.
- Sheikh Ahmed Al-Falasi also promised to help improve facilities at the hospital.
Within the next three months, the Coast Provincial General Hospital will start offering kidney transplant services, thanks to a partnership with the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
“We had fruitful discussions with our partners from KNH and we will soon start the kidney transplant program in three months’ time,” Coast General Coast chief administrator Dr Iqbal Khandwalla said Wednesday.
He said the hospital will soon start conducting other specialised operations as well. “This will decongest KNH that has a huge backlog of patients,” Dr Khandwalla said.
Just the other day, the hospital, for the very first time, carried out a three successful open-heart surgeries and more is still in the offing, according to the management.
This will save kidney patients from the region the heavy costs they incur in search of the same services in Nairobi or private hospitals.
KNH Chief Executive Lily Koros who spoke ahead of another heart surgery at the facility said they will continue partnering with county and level five hospitals to assist them carry out complex procedures.
“We have been training doctors from this hospital and the Machakos Level Five Hospital, at the same time offering consultancy services on the same,” Ms Koros said.
Dr Khandwalla said the hospital will soon be transformed into a speciality referral hospital.
He said the first three patients to benefit from the first open-heart surgeries to be conducted at another public hospital besides KNH are recovering well at home.
He said the hospital has lined up five more patients with different heart conditions for surgery.
Dr Khandwalla said they have been receiving a huge number of kidney patients since they started their dialysis programme in 2010.
“Currently, we have more than 26 patients attending about 200 dialysis sessions per month,” he said.
Each dialysis session costs up to Sh6,000 and between Sh12, 000 to Sh15, 000 in private hospitals.
The hospital recently received four state-of-the-art ultramodern dialysis machines donated by a businessman from the United Arab Emirates.
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Falasi also promised to help improve facilities at the hospital.
