Provincial hospitals in PH will be equipped with dialysis machines
The Department of Health (DOH) will be equipping all provincial hospitals all over the Philippines with dialysis machines as a complement with the increase of PhilHealth benefits for members.
As reported in GMA News, Health Secretary Janette Garin recently made an announcement that these dialysis machines will be placed in provincial hospitals costing P17 to P18 million each.
DOH also gave a statement saying that there were a total of 326 dialysis clinics licensed to operate in the Philippines in 2015.
It was also the same year when the DOH ordered PhilHealth to “adjust its hemodialysis package from 45 to 90 sessions per year to increase the maximum coverage per patient.”
As stated by Dr. Susan Jorge of the Philippine Renal Disease & Prevention Control Program, she said that at the start of the National Kidney Awareness Month, the Project was initiated to prevent the sudden increase of dialysis patients in the past ten years.
Jorge pointed out that the increase of patients also mean for PhilHealth to put out more for the medical needs of its members.
She also expressed how worried she is in the continued increase of the kidney patient noting that there are about 8,000 to 15,000 in ten years, and now became 28, 215 as of today.
In addition, she quoted the data from the US Renal Data System saying that the Philippines is “one of the seven countries that showed” a fast increase in cases of kidney problems in the last 10 years.
She added that the country is one of the fifty countries which is now becoming as a diabet3s hotspot as the International Diabetes Federation says.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nerissa Gerial of the National Kidney & Transplant Institute will offer free treatment of the first 100 patients on June 3, 10, 17, and 24 as part of the Kidney Awareness Month.
But, those patients with requests for urinalysis, cystatin C, creatinine, fasting blo0d sugar, cholesterol, and general ultrasound will be treated.
She added that there will also be a nephrology lecture to be conducted for grade school students at Barangay Piñahan Elementary School in Quezon City.