Dialysis centres not up to mark

Star: KLANG: Services provided by some haemodialysis centres are not up to mark, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.
He added that they do not separate the (haemodialysis) machines for Hepatitis A, B and C patients.
“This causes cross infections,” he told reporters after opening the Meru central market haemodialysis centre here yesterday.
He said all centres must have qualified or trained medical staff to handle the medical jobs.
Dr Chua added that there must also be people at the centres to handle emergency cases, saying that the ministry had closed a few centres that did not meet stipulated specifications. He, however, declined to elaborate on this.
Dr Chua called on the NGOs to register their haemodialysis centres with the Health Ministry to ensure they provide quality service to patients.
He added that this was stipulated under the Private Health Care Facilities and Services Act 1998.
“A total of 260 centres provided by private hospitals and NGOs have registered with us.”
Dr Chua said it was important for all haemodialysis centres to register in order for the ministry to monitor their operation standards.
The minister said there are 15,000 kidney patients in the country surviving on haemodialysis treatment.
This worked out to 450 patients in every one million Malaysians – one of the highest rates in the world.
“Half of these patients are those with diabetic complications,” he said, adding that 10% of Malaysians were diabetic and this was expected to grow to 13% by 2020.
He said there were 2,500 new kidney patients each year and this had raised some concerns, especially as there were patients as young as 15.
There are altogether 1,133 haemodialysis machines at public hospitals to treat 35% of the total number of patients nationwide.
Dr Chua said the Government spent RM17mil last year to provide haemodialysis treatment to poor patients and spent another RM3mil on the machines for various centres.
The ministry will apply for another RM20mil to expand haemodialysis services this year, he added.