THOUSANDS of kidney patients and their families will benefit from a new $6 million dialysis unit at the Community Hospital of Seventh Day Adventist in Cocorite, said Caribbean Union Conference field secretary Dr Clive Dottin.
Speaking Friday at the opening ceremony for the new unit, Dottin said it was the product of faith and hard work by the staff.
The unit is outfitted with 20 dialysis machines and two on standby.
Dialysis is an artificial procedure to eliminate waste and unwanted fluid from patients, a natural function of the kidney.
Community Hospital CEO Dr Richard Spann noted that they have been able to dispense a “reasonably high quality” of renal care at the not-for-profit institution.
He said due to the large number of patients requiring dialysis treatment, the Ministry of Health has outsourced the care to private institutions and to, “pick up the slack and render care to our unfortunate citizens”.
He stressed that end stage renal disease can affect anyone.
“The ministry has supported this programme and in so doing has alleviated the suffering and premature death of many, many of our citizens,” he said.
Ministry of Health representative Dr Kumar Sundaraneedi in his remarks noted a significant number of patients suffering from renal diseases and requiring continual dialysis treatment cannot obtain it in the general hospitals due to limited facilities available and had to be assisted with their needs at private institutions.
Dr Richard Hart, feature speaker and president of Loma Linda University, a Seventh Day Adventist Health Sciences Institution located in California, United States, noted that in the 1990s the Community Hospital had begun a “slide”, as was the case with a number of Seventh Day Adventist hospitals around the world, and was at the point of closing down.
He recalled, however, that in 2003 they decided to focus on specific areas of neurosurgery, Intensive Care Unit and dialysis unit.
