Deputy Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Board of Management, Dr Abdul Mohamed, gave some shocking statistics about chronic kidney disease in Barbados during the QEH’s World Kidney Day seminar yesterday.
According to conservative estimates, patients who require dialysis in Barbados are expected to double this year.
This shocking revelation was made by Deputy Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Board of Management, Dr Abdul Mohamed, during the hospital’s World Kidney Day seminar yesterday.
He noted that in 1979 the hospital’s Dialysis Unit only had three patients, but by 2011 there were 200 and this year that figure could be as high as 400. He added that presently, the Artificial Kidney Unit sees and treats 186 haemodialysis patients weekly, the Peritoneal Dialysis Unit manages 88 patients, and the QEH outsources renal replacement therapy for another 121 patients.
Multi-million dollar health bill
Dr. Mohamed also pointed out that each patient is being treated at a cost of $250 per visit, with patients requiring three treatments per week. This, he explained, is costing government millions of dollars.
“…the Queen Elizabeth Hospital spends in excess of 15 million dollars on haemodialysis annually and this figure does not include visits to the Accident and Emergency Department and
in-patient care when dialysis patients require admission to hospital, ” he said.
The medical practitioner noted that kidney disease continues to rise in Barbados, with the Renal Outreach Clinic recording over 2 500 patients and 268 new patients being treated at the clinic.
He said that the cost to run the clinic is approximately 2.9 million dollars annually, according to the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
“There are approximately another 20 000 Barbadians with undiagnosed stages one through four chronic kidney disease. A large percentage of chronic kidney disease patients continue to live normal lives, completely unaware that their kidney function is impaired,” said Dr. Mohamed.
The Deputy Chairman revealed that in an effort to fight this silent killer, there are a number of programmes aimed at improving the care. He mentioned the 2018 Fistula Better Programme; and Sustainable Kidney Transplantation Programme, which started in 2016 and facilitated ten successful kidney transplantation surgeries.
In closing, Dr. Mohamed urged the audience to maintain a healthy body weight, eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, drink plenty of water, do not smoke, limit alcohol consumption and maintain healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels.
He highlighted that many of the cases of patients who present to the Artificial Kidney Unit with end stage renal disease also have one or more non-communicable disease. The medical professional also reiterated that kidney disease is preventable.
“If we truly believe the age-old adage that prevention is better than cure, why to continue to treat chronic kidney disease when we can prevent it?” he asked.