The joint venture programme which will be rolled out before the end of the year is expected to reduce the cost of treatment to save many Kenyans who have been seeking the services overseas.

 

 

A working group will meet next month to develop the programme guidelines on how the patients will be identified and how the programme will be run including the costs to run it.

 

According to the Principal Secretary (PS) for Health, Dr. Nicholas Muraguri, services will be availed at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) and some selected local private hospitals, to enhance the current national capacities.

 

Even though a significant number of patients require a new kidney, the services have been limited to KNH and a few private hospitals.

 

“We carry out 20 to 30 transplants annually at KNH but we want a scenario where they are a daily affair. We shall therefore boost the capacities at KNH, support MTRH and identify private hospitals that we can work with because we have that talent here,” he said.

 

 

Dr. Muraguri said the programme is expected to reduce costs of running dialysis services in the long run.

It is estimated that 10,000 Kenyans are in deer need of dialysis due to chronic renal failure resulting from complications of diabetes, hypertension, infections and cancer, but only 1,500 have enrolled for treatment.

 

‘’Dialysis is supposed to be a temporary measure whose end result is a transplant. If you don’t invest in a transplant service then you have 10,000 people every year who need dialysis, and you’re going to overwhelm the system,” he noted.

 

The PS revealed that the government is keen on having the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) support the process.

 

 

“A single session of dialysis is KES 6,000 and that’s the same amount required to buy insurance with NHIF. It makes more sense to be insured because a single session is all the insurance you need for the whole year,” he clarified.

 

The development of renal services has been identified as a key priority because dialysis is a life-saving service for people with kidney failure. Due to the Managed Equipment Service project additional renal services are now available at Machakos, Thika, Kakamega Level 5 Hospitals and Nakuru Referral Hospital among others.

 

 

A number of African countries including South Africa, Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria and Ghana already have well established national kidney transplant programmes.

 

Source : www.health.go.ke