Anxiety and tension is high among patients requiring treatment for kidney disease and/or dialysis.
Just a few weeks ago Minister of Health, the Hon. John Boyce and CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Dexter Paul, had indicated that there would be abandoning the free dialysis care for kidney patients at the hospital. The hospital has been under enormous stress since the Hospital’s budget was slashed by the Minister of Finance in the recent Budgetary Proposals of 2013.
As a result there has been much talk about introducing user-fees and more recently, the private services at the QEH have gone up by a whopping 75% as the QEH tries to grapple with handling budget cuts while delivering quality care.
CEO Dexter Paul had indicated that budget cuts would not compromise health care but admitted that the hospital still owed millions of dollars to its pharmaceutical distributors. The distributors indicated that they were not sending any medication to the hospital until the debts were paid.
Anxious
And now today, kidney patients are “scared and anxious” according to news reports as news of shortages, which were mentioned in the House of Parliament by Dr. Mr. Agard, not only include medication for eye care, chemotherapy and other illnesses but now for kidney disease.
News reports suggest that Dialysis patients have been forced to turn to private pharmacies for three life-saving drugs. A month’s supply of mircera can cost a hefty US$500 and the drugs are very expensive.
This new situation is fuelling fear and anxiety among many dialysis patients who would ordinarily have their prescriptions filled by the QEH but are finding it difficult to come up with the money.
Kidney patients were also recently told of a shortage of venofer, mircera and recormon, a critical part of their treatment for kidney disease. The medication can run into hundreds of dollars to possibly thousands of dollars.
