Ms Nancy Abedi, a Dialysis Nurse at the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH), has appealed to the government, to consider set up at least, one dialysis centre in every region to provide the needed care for patients in the area.

She said cases of kidney disease in Ghana were on the rise there was the need to subsidise its treatment for the vulnerable with the disease.

Ms Abedi made the appeal at the weekly, “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility! A Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting communication on health-related topics and setting the medium for the propagation of health information to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy.

Speaking on the number of dialysis machines available for the management of the diseases, she said most regions did not have dialysis centres to care for patients, making some of them travel long distances to access care.

She stated, for instance, that it was just until recently that the Volta Region had one centre, while the Eastern Region and others did not have any at all.

The IMaH Dialysis Nurse revealed that the Tema area currently had five centres, all of which were privately owned, and added that due to the cost involved in running the machine, which operates on electricity, and water treatment plants, dialysis costs were very expensive.

She said a session of dialysis cost between GH¢500.00 and GH¢600.00, and a patient needed at least three dialyses in a week to flush out the toxins and extra water from their system since their kidneys were not functioning well enough to do so on their own.

Ms Abedi dismissed the myth that kidney disease was a sickness for the rich, saying, “I have patients who are in the middle class, unemployed, with some as young as 23 years, it has no class preference as the poor and the rich are all prone to it”.

Source: Ghana News Agency