Health Minister Ronnie Skelton has disclosed that up to November 15, Peebles Hospital was providing about 48 persons with weekly dialysis treatment.
He made the disclosure during an address in observation of World Diabetes Day. Diabetes can have a damaging effect on a patient’s kidneys and cause the organ to fail.
Failing kidneys lose their ability to filter out waste products, resulting in kidney disease. In such cases, patients may require dialysis treatment. Dialysis is usually needed when patients lose about 85 to 90 percent of their kidney function.
During the last few weeks – first at a public meeting in Fahie Hill and then at another in Huntums Ghut – the Health Minister expressed concern about the increasing number of patients who require dialysis treatment in the territory.
At the Huntums Ghut meeting, Skelton said he is afraid that, if the current obesity trend continues, the dialysis programme would become hard to sustain. He added that Government would find it difficult to accommodate the cost for the dialysis treatment required.Skelton also told the gathering that hypertension and obesity are considered a serious national health situation among the non-communicable diseases group.
He said: “High hypertension and obesity is causing a large percentage of our people to have to go on dialysis. When we started the dialysis unit at Peebles Hospital about six years ago, we had about 13 or 14 patients; now we have about 54 and it’s climbing.”
In light of the increasing numbers, the Minister suggested that intervention should begin in the schools at the earliest age.
“We need to address it at the school level and I know of some schools that have already started the programme. So there is help on the way for this because, if we continue this way, we wouldn’t be able to offer dialysis to all the people who need it,” the Health Minister cautioned.
