Sign MoUs With Health Ministry, Dialysis Centres Told

JOHOR BAHARU, Oct 8 (Bernama) -- Dialysis centres run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been asked to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Health Ministry to upgrade their service quality to kidney patients.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said the MoU was important as some dialysis centres have been found to have weaknesses in handling haemodialysis machines.
There have been cases of haemodialysis machines been detected to be the cause of infections to sufferers of kidney ailments, he said.
"The awareness among NGOs about dialysis service quality is still low. Many of them take for granted the handling of the machines without thinking of the infection risk to patients.
"Some patients have been diagnosed to have Hepatitis after undergoing dialysis," he told reporters after attending a fund-raising drive for the Johor Quarry Association dialysis centre here Friday night.
Besides infections, other shortcomings are untrained staff operating haemodialysis machines, no preventive measures to curb infections and insufficient equipment to handle emergencies.
"Some staff handling dialysis machines have no proper training to provide emergency treatment to patients.
"Most of the dialysis centres are found to have not updated their service records," he said.
To date, only 23 NGO-run dialysis centres have inked MoUs with his ministry while the remaining 60 have not done so.
"I urge them to do so immediately.