Two dialysis machines were delivered to the Nyeri County Referral Hospital on Monday, bringing their total number to seven.
Governor Mutahi Kahiga said the county still has room for three more machines.
The machines were donated by Angelica Medical Supplies, in partnership with National Bank of Kenya and Rosche Company.
Kahiga said the two machines will go a long way in easing the pain of patients on the waiting list.
He said the county is in talks with AMS to provide three more machines to increase the number of patients served to 20 per day.
“We appreciate that National Bank has, in conjunction with AMS, provided sponsorship of about Sh20 million for the entire country to provide machines for taking blood sugar levels to all renal patients before they undergo dialysis,” Kahiga said.
He said this will help reduce diabetes-related deaths as well as control the disease.
The governor said the hospital has about 15 patients on the waiting list daily.
The five machines were run in two shifts per day.
AMS executive director Mary Matu said the firm is the subcontractor tasked with installation of the machines.
She said they added two more machines to increase the hospital's capacity.
“We also realised through a study that was done at Kenyatta Hospital that one of the biggest causes of kidney failure is diabetes,” she said.
"But the patients who come from the diabetes clinics are not taken care of once they leave the clinic to come to the renal unit so eventually it is diabetes that kills them."
AMS will provide free blood sugar testing in all the 54 dialysis centres in the country through a partnership that will be funded by NBK, Matu said.
Dialysis is the process of removing blood from a patient and cleaning it following the failure of the kidneys.
The water used in dialysis (to clean the blood) has to be ultra pure and therefore all renal units have to have water treatment plants.
NBK marketing and corporate communications director Bernadette Ngara said they chose AMS as they supply high-quality products.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)
