Businessman donates four dialysis machines to Coast General Hospital

Coast General Hospital has received four state of the art, ultramodern dialysis machines donated by a businessman from the United Arab Emirates.

The four machines are expected to complement the existing ones at the hospital’s dialysis centre.

Hundreds of patients suffering from kidney failure will now be saved from the trouble of seeking expensive treatment elsewhere.

Sheikh Ahmed Al- Falasi from UAE who is also a friend of Governor Hassan Joho’s promised residents that he will assist improve facilities at the hospital.

“I will help you. Soon you will see wonders in this hospital, just pray for us,” he told the residents during the official opening of the centre.

Sheikh Al-Falasi has also committed to donate dialysis supplies worth Sh9 million for the centre.

The centre will now offer affordable rates and quality dialysis services in the region.

Governor Joho tasked Mvita MP Abdullswamad Nassir to set up a committee that will vet applicants for five free or partial sponsorship for kidney transplants annually.

The committee will also vet deserving patients for free dialysis at the centre, he said.

The governor added that the county will partner with University of Washington to put up an oncology centre at the facility to save the lives of cancer patients.

Mr Joho said within one year the county will have set up and opened the first oncology centre at the hospital to save lives insisting that he will fulfil his pledges.

“Earlier I held discussions with a delegation from University of Washington led by Prof Scott McLelland on partnering to put up an oncology centre at Coast General Hospital. We will continue to forge strategic relationships with development partners. I need your support,” he added.

The hospital’s administrator Dr Iqbal Khandwalla said the hospital, being the only government dialysis centre in the region, handles patients from various counties in the region.

FINANCIAL BURDEN

He said about a million Kenyans suffer from kidney ailments and for patients who end up having renal failure many a times keeping alive becomes a huge challenge and even a nightmare due to financial burden.

“It becomes extremely difficult for me to explain to somebody why I cannot put him on a list for dialysis because I just do not have space or capacity.

“Each dialysis session can cost between Sh6000 in our facility and between Sh12,000 to Sh15,000 in private facilities and the recommended frequency is sessions per week which very few can manage. In fact some can hardly manage one session per week,” he added.

The doctor emphasised on the need for sensitisation about the disease whose common causes are diabetes and hypertension.

He challenged the region to expand the programme by starting a transplantation centre at the hospital to serve the whole region insisting it would be the permanent solution to the disease.

“We have expanded the capacity from nine machines to 13 fully functioning dialysis machines and have just increased our capacity by more than 50 per cent.

“This gives us an assessments of the degree of urgency and necessity of such a programme,” he said.

The administrator said since the start of the programme in 2010, there has a surge in the number of patients diagnosed with kidney failure and currently they have a list of 26 patients attending about 200 dialysis sessions per month.