The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret is handling more than 200 kidney patients who go for dialysis or other forms of care every week.
Chief executive Dr Wilson Aruasa said the patients include children some of whom have lived at the institution for more than five years because they cannot be handled at other lower level medical institutions.
Dr Aruasa said the hospital now has a capacity to carry out kidney transplants as a regular procedure and that so far more than 150 transplants have been done at the institution.
Starting last week when the International World Kidney day was marked, the hospital has now adopted a plan to go out to the communities and educate Kenyans on the need to prevent kidney diseases.
“We want to focus on the role of community or family unit in prevention of kidney diseases through educating our people on having proper diet by use of fresh food rather than processed food which ends up causing a lot of complications,” Dr Aruasa said.
He said Kenyans must also be sensitised on the need to keep fit through exercising daily to avoid complications like diabetes which is the main cause of kidney failure or kidney disease.
“Even our staff here at MTRH have to walk for five kilometres weekly or exercise frequently so that they keep fit even as they go on with their duties to care for patients."
Dr Aruasa said as a level 6 facility with international class services, the hospital developed internal capacity to handle any kind of medical complications and support the same at lower level hospitals in the counties.
He hailed the role of the media in sensitising the public and urged journalists to promote content on health matters.
He emphasised on the importance of good dieting and exercising as an effective way to prevent complications.
Dr Aruasa said kidney transplant was the most effective and cheaper way to deal with kidney ailments as compared to weekly dialysis.
He further said dialysis costs about Sh100,000 per patient monthly, but after transplant, patients require about Sh30,000 for post transplant care.
“That is why we encourage kidney transplants because a patient is near to normal after the transplant than when he or she is required to visit the hospital twice weekly for dialysis,”Dr Aruasa said.
He said the NHIF pays Sh9,000 per dialysis session for patients but hoped that the funds will soon be able to cover post transplant care.
Dr Aruasa also said that the Ministry of Health had been effective in supporting and helping to improve capacity of the hospital.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
