Patients suffering from kidney failure in Murang’a county have been reprieved after the county government opened a dialysis centre at Kigumo Level Four Hospital.
The centre is the second one after Murang’a Hospital which started
offering the services in 2019 and has been serving patients from the county and
the surrounding areas.
Governor Irungu Kang’ata who commissioned the new centre on
Saturday said it will reprieve many patients from Kigumo Sub County and the
neighbouring areas who were previously forced to travel to Murang’a town or seek
the services from private facilities.
Kang’ata said the centre will have 10 machines that will be
serving about 30 patients every week.
“The centre at Murang’a Level Five hospital has only four operational dialysis machines after five others broke down. We will add
eight more to ensure more patients are served”.
The centre was opened with the partnership of Bena Care, an organization
that provides affordable and high-quality home-based nursing and therapy for
chronically ill patients.
Naom Monari, Bena Care’s Chief Executive Officer, said the project
was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim, a German-based research-driven group of
companies that promote the development of innovative healthcare products.
“After this, we plan to provide trucks that will help get dialysis
services closer to the people in the villages,” Monari said.
Kigumo MCA Caroline Njoroge said the area has a high number of
patients requiring dialysis services and that they were being forced to travel
for hours to Murang’a town for treatment.
“My father is a patient. We tried to book a slot at the Murang’a
centre but the queue was too long. We had to take him to a private facility,”
she said.
The MCA said the dialysis procedure leaves patients exhausted and
that it subjects them to immense discomfort when they have to travel long
distances right afterwards.
Njoroge Ng’ang’a who was among the first patients to undergo dialysis
at the centre said he had to travel to Kabati area near Thika town for
treatment previously.
“This is right at
my doorstep. We are happy that these services have been brought closer to us,”
he said.
His sentiments
were echoed by Pius Chege who said weekly travel costs to Murang’a town were
too huge and they have now been cut.
“We thank the
county government for this initiative. It will save us a lot of money that can
be used to buy food and other things”.
