– Move likely to reduce death rate of financially-challenged patientsApproximately $250 million will be required annually if the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is to offer a sustained free dialysis service to kidney failure patients in both its inpatient and outpatient departments.GPHC’s Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Kishore PersaudCurrently it costs the public hospital about $7,000 to dialyse a single patient. But the lack of sufficient funds does not permit the hospital to provide indefinite dialysis treatment to patients, says Kidney Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Kishore Persaud, who heads the GPHC’s Dialysis Unit.This means that patients are eventually expected to seek dialysis treatment privately.However, Chairman of the hospital’s Board of Directors, Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman, has divulged that discussions have commenced to determine how the existing challenge could be countered in order to sustain a free dialysis programme for patients who can ill-afford to pay for the service.The hospital is expected to share more on the way forward today during a press conference.Once a patient is diagnosed with kidney failure, he or she is offered treatment at the GPHC at no cost. But according to Dr. Persaud, since the cost of offering dialysis has been increasing, there is only so much that the hospital can do.There are different stages of kidney failure. Patients manifesting stages one and two could be treated merely by controlling their blood pressure, sugar and their metabolic intake in an attempt to prevent the disease from progressing. But, according to Dr. Persaud, once a patient is diagnosed with stages four or five of the disease, dialysis is usually the recommended treatment.Most patients seek help at the GPHC during the advanced stages of kidney failure, he divulged.He related that “once the patient requires dialysis, what we do is speak to their family and let them know that this is a lifelong treatment.”There are two types of dialysis – hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.“Hemodialysis is basically where the patient’s blood goes through a machine and is filtered and returned to their body…with the peritoneal dialysis they have to do that daily,” Dr. Persaud explained.But given the magnitude of kidney failure, patients who are seen at the GPHC, coupled with the fact that the hospital currently has a mere three functioning dialysis machines and lacks sufficient staff to expand this service, only a limited number of patients are afforded treatment.However, this is likely to change, with plans apace to bring a few more machines into operation before the end of this week.But after being offered a period of free service, patients are eventually required to move on to another facility to continue dialysis. But this is not without initial support. There are at least three privately-operated facilities that offer dialysis treatment that patients can access.In the past, kidney failure patients were afforded financial support from the Ministry of Health which covered about 40 sessions of dialysis at a private institution per year. However, the high cost of offering this service has caused the Ministry to revise its financial support, whereby patients are only offered a one-off cheque of $360,000 to cater to about 40 sessions.After these sessions are completed, many patients are unable to afford to continue dialysis treatment.Approximately 110 patients, between the ages of 14 and 75, have passed through the GPHC dialysis unit during the past three years.Dr. Persaud disclosed that the state of affairs that exists is that an increasing number of these patients have been opting to not undergo dialysis treatment privately, which could help to extend their lives, because they simply cannot afford it. This has been linked to these patients’ economic standing, which sees them unable to afford the cost for the life-saving treatment.There are reports that suggest that there has been an alarming increase in the number of renal failure-related deaths this year.Although he admitted that there has been an increase in the number of kidney failure-related deaths, Dr. Persaud was however unable to share how many. He nevertheless disclosed that while the main causes of renal failure are diabetes and high blood pressure, the public health sector is looking to reduce its impact by developing its primary care.“Once we can develop our primary care out there to prevent and have patients control their sugar and pressure, we can help to prevent this (kidney failure),Kyle Wiltjer Jersey,” said Dr. Persaud.There are however some persons who suffer from autoimmune diseases that damage the kidney, and kidney failure in such cases may not be preventable. However, patients with kidney failure who are young and healthy enough could undergo kidney transplant surgery at the GPHC.Dr. Persaud has conducted three successful transplants at the GPHC and has plans to do a few more in the near future. One of these patients has however since died of a lung infection, which was unrelated to the surgery.The operation, according to Dr. Persaud, costs $1 million, a sum that does not go to the GPHC but rather to an overseas facility in the United States that conducts cross-matching tests ahead of the transplant.Kidney surgery done privately could costs as much as $8 million, Dr. Persaud related.
