St Joseph’s Hospital opens $10-million dialysis unit
THE new $10-million Haemodialysis Unit at St Joseph’s Hospital, which began operations four-and-a-half weeks ago, has made treatment available to hundreds more Jamaicans who are afflicted with renal failure (kidney disease).
The unit is equipped with eight dialysis stations which can serve up to 16 patients per day, bringing the total for a five-day week to 80.
Chief executive officer at the hospital, Fabian Brown, speaking at yesterday’s official opening ceremony for the Haemodialysis Unit, hailed it as an important step in the development of St Joseph’s.
“It enhances the health care service we provide and it adds a new component to what we offer at St Joseph’s. The fact is that dialysis services are actually lacking in Jamaica so this [unit at St Joseph’s] complements what already exists in the island,” he said.
“It provides greater opportunities for added services to many more persons who are in need of this service and…[it is in keeping with] the mission of the hospital to provide comprehensive health care,” Brown told the Observer.
Yesterday, consultant nephrologist at St Joseph’s, Professor Everard Barton, one of the authors of a study into the incidence of renal failure in the island (2004), said another dialysis unit had long been needed in Jamaica where demand outweighed supply.
He lauded the move by the hospital and the charity organisation Food for the Poor, which donated 8 of the 12 machines, but said more urgent work needed to be done in the area of renal failure.
“If we stop there we will be failing the population. We must continue with health education programmes…to preach the message of preventing the disease; two of the major causes are hypertension and diabetes. We need support in the transplantation programme…and we need more dialysis machines,” Barton told the official opening of the unit at the hospital’s Deanery Road complex in Kingston.
“Although the crude prevalence shows that 400 per million (of the Jamaican) population suffer from renal failure, it is a gross underestimation. It is more like 500 or so.
“There are patients in the rural areas who don’t have access to health care facilities and there are patients who don’t have the finances to access private hospitals. There are also patients who need transplantation procedures but who need the money to buy the medication so that their bodies don’t expel the kidney,” added Barton.
The eight-station facility so far has 10 patients who go in for treatment two or three times per week, paying a total of $7,000 per session, which Brown said was “one of the best” industry-wide.
Bringing greetings at the dedication and official opening ceremony, President of Food for the Poor Robin Mahfood expressed pleasure at having partnered with St Joseph’s and at having filled “such a great need”. thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com