Kidney patients: How new dialysis unit helped alleviate our sufferings
Diabetic patients in Kwara State have heaved a sigh of relief with the commissioning of a new dialysis centre at the General Hospital, Ilorin recently.
Hitherto, there was only one dialysis centre at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital.
With the new centre at the General Hospital, patients say they spend less time waiting on the queue, and also pay less as well.
Mr Stephen Oni, a patient at the centre who spoke to our reporter during one of his sessions said it had given patients opportunity to make choices. He added that it had also broken the monopoly in treatment of patients in the state.
He said: “I usually do my dialysis sessions at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and sometimes I go to LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo in Osun State before the General Hospital Ilorin started this one. It is cheaper at the General Hospital Ilorin because it costs only N25, 000 per session while I pay more than that at other hospitals. I do it twice or three times a week.
“The service is excellent and the nurses and doctors are accommodating. However, I want the state government to provide more machines to make it available to more patients, because sometimes the only other alternative, UITH may have problems with its machines making it difficult for patients to access treatment in the whole state. This place should be more engaged,” Oni said.
Another patient who craved anonymity said that the fact that she can now choose where to go each time she needed dialysis had provided her relief unlike before when she was left stranded or forced to travel.
She said it was much easier for her to pay for sessions at the new unit because of the less costs.
Head of the Renal Unit of the General Hospital, Ilorin, Dr Ibiyemi Mayokun said the unit takes care of people with kidney diseases, adding that the unit now has a dialysis unit equipped with dialysis machines which is one of the modalities of treating people with kidney diseases.
“Before now we only ran renal clinic, but now we can attend to our patients. It is a whole brand unit on its own and General Hospital Ilorin is the only hospital in Kwara State that has a renal centre,” she said.
Speaking on her experience at the unit, Mayokun said ,“It has been superb and we have received a lot of patients, some of whom need dialysis while others needed only treatment. Since the dialysis centre opened, we have had up to 30 patients. It is affordable because the government is subsidising it, and we are about the cheapest centre around with standard treatment.
“We charge N25,000 while other hospitals charge as high as N45,000. We are starting with just two machines but there is need for expansion as we go on. Also we are aiming at kidney transplant at the centre,” he said.
On the staff strength, Mayokun affirmed that every hospital in Nigeria lacks adequate staff, adding that the new unit has the basic number of staff needed to start the centre.
“We can treat kidney disease here, Nigerians don’t need medical tourism any more to access dialysis and I will advise the public to take care of their health especially kidney health, because when it starts the care is usually expensive,” she said.