Materia Medica Malaysiana

Miri dialysis centre needs volunteers

MIRI: Cash or material donations are what the Miri Red Crescent Society wants, but if you cannot spare these, then voluntary service will do.
The centre, located at the Miri Red Cresent headquarters, provides treatment to thousands of renal-failure sufferers and is need of extra volunteers to help it reach out to more folks, especially those in the interior.
Annual costs run up to more than a million ringgit, and the centre depends mainly on contributions.
The centre’s chairman Lee Kim Shin, who is Assistant State Minister for Infrastructure Development and Communications, said kidney failure patients undergo a lot of physical and financial stress.
“Those who can afford get their dialysis treatment at private health centres where they are charged thousands of ringgit every year.
“For the poor, the centre has served as a lifesaver,” he added.
Set up in 1996, the centre, which is managed by the Miri Red Crescent Society, has provided treatment to some 35,000 people throughout the state.
It provides full or partially subsidised treatment depending on the financial background of patients.
Each dialysis session costs RM150, with middle-income earners given a subsidised rate of RM80.
“For the poor, we only charge RM5 per session.