Woefully Inadequate: 9,600 kidney failure patients, 40 dialysis machinesBy Faris Al-Qahtani
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
RIYADH – Hospitals around the Kingdom are growing increasingly concerned at the plight of patients suffering from renal failure and bemoan the lack of kidney dialysis machines.
The Kingdom’s 9,600 kidney failure patients also face long waiting lists for treatment, a situation which only serves to exacerbate their health problems.
In Hail, patients with renal failure complain of a shortage in medicines and vital equipment. Ahmad Al-Shemeri, a patient at Hail’s Central Hospital, said there was a desperate shortage of drugs needed for heamodialyis.
“There is also a lack of medicines needed to reactivate kidney functions,” Al-Shemeri added.
Another renal failure patient, Faisal Al-Jehani, said the Urology Department’s lack of essential facilities forced the department to arrange appointments which are extremely inconvenient for many patients, especially women and children living outside the town.
Fawaz Al-Remaid, Medical Director of King Khaled Hospital in Hail, said there was a shortage of dialysis machines.
“There are 41 machines, one of which is no longer in service, and we need 50,” he said.
Al-Remaid said the department needed 14 new machines to cope with the large number of renal failure patients in the region.
“About 150 renal failure patients visit our department every day,” he said.
“Only 25 nurses and four doctors serve in the department. Two of the doctors are specialists while the other two are GPs attending to 150 patients daily in three sessions ending at mid night. We know the timing is inconvenient for patients, but circumstances force us to do so. Patients suffering from total renal failure can’t survive without this and need this to purify their blood three times a week,” Al-Remaid said.
The situation in most parts of the Kingdom is similar. The head of King Khaled Hospital in Najran said that the shortage in technical staff is not just limited to hospitals but is also found at the level of the Ministry of Health, while the director of the Jizan General Hospital’s Kidney Center said patients’ sufferings from the shortage in dialysis machines is exacerbated by the need to travel to hospitals in Dammam, Riyadh or Jeddah for kidney transplantations. There is no kidney transplantation center in Jizan.
Citizens in Jizan have been long demanding a kidney transplantation center. The director of Prince Sultan Center in Jizan said there were real problems in transportation because patients come from remote areas for heamodialysis twice or three times a week.
The Prince Sultan Center attends to 50 patients a day via three shifts.
“What increases the pressure is emergency cases and patients with hepatitis who need to be separated from other patients.”
The King Abdul Aziz Center in Madina is in no better condition. Renal failure patients face long waiting lists for treatment, a shortage of hospital beds and dialysis machines, instead go to Jeddah and other cities.
Abdul Razak Hafez, spokesman for Health Affairs in Madina, said renal failure patients could not survive for two days without being put on a hemodialysis machine.
He said there were 76 beds in the center and 431 patients taking regular hemodialysis, in addition to 26 patients receiving treatment at King Khaled Hospital.
Renal failure patients in Najran say matters have become worse for them since the incorporation of Prince Sultan Cardiac and Kidney Center into King Khaled Hospital, which has seen many of the center’s technical staff being transferred to the hospital.
Dr. Abdu Hassan Al-Zubaidi, the hospital’s director, said the move was designed to improve the center and benefit from the hospital’s facilities.
Al-Zubaidi said there were plans to improve the center with work progressing in the angiography section and plans to replace all old equipment.
The shortage in medical staff, he said, was not limited to the hospital but also present in the ministry, an issue that he said authorities were working to address.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Deghathir, Executive Director of Prince Salman Philanthropic Society Caring for Renal Failure Patients, said the society gave SR10,000 aid in cash every year to patients suffering from renal failure registered in the society.
Al-Deghathir said that renal failure patients just needed to fill an application form and submit it to social workers at the society in order to receive aid. The society has given SR48 million in aid in the last five years. - Okaz /SG
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