Lamu dialysis patients suffer as water shortage hits renal unit

The lives of dialysis patients in Lamu hang in the balance following a water shortage at the renal unit at the King Fahad hospital.

So dire is the situation that dialysis services at the hospital have been disrupted and kidney patients referred to Mombasa and Nairobi for the life saving service.

A total of 12 patients who have been receiving treatment at the facility were last week directed to pick referral letters and seek medical attention outside the county as it makes efforts to rectify the water issue.

The patients have however refused the referrals on grounds that they are poor and cannot afford to cater for transport and medical costs for the dialysis outside Lamu.

Lamu county health executive Anne Gathoni said there has been an issue with the water supply to the renal unit.

She said owing to the drought season, the usual water supply reservoirs had been rendered saline thus affecting operations of the dialysis machines.

In a scary scenario last week, one of the dialysis machines at the unit collapsed during a session after the desalination tanks abruptly ran out of water forcing the medical staff to discontinue midway and send the patient back home.

A renal unit requires adequate and consistent supply of good quality water to effectively function.

Since most of the water in Lamu is salty, the county government has set up a mini-desalination plant at the facility which converts saline water into quality water for use at the renal unit.

Gathoni however admitted that for several months now, the plant has faced hitches that have made it impossible to run dialysis services at the hospital.

“We are working really hard to rectify the issue after which the services will continue in a few days,” Gathoni said.

She however said the facility is still able to handle a small number of patients despite the issue.

“We have reduced the number of those undergoing dialysis sessions per day. For instance, if we used to serve five patients per day, we’re currently attending to two or three only while the rest are rescheduled for other days. We expect the problem to be resolved possibly by this week.” 

The Lamu renal unit is part of the Sh1.1 billion equipment procured by the national government under the Managed Equipment Services programme.

The renal unit at the Lamu Kinga Fahad County hospital was officially commissioned together with the Computer Topography (CT-Scan) centre by then Health CS Sicily Kariuki, in 2018.

-Edited by SKanyara