Mozambique’s largest hospital needs 21 haemodialysis machines

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Mozambique’s largest hospital needs 21 haemodialysis machines

9:44 CAT | 16 Feb 2024

Image: Notícias

Maputo Central Hospital (HCB), the largest in Mozambique, needs at least 21 haemodialysis machines to assist kidney failure patients undergoing treatment there, a source from the institution said yesterday.

Elsa Chissico, director of the Haemodialysis Service at HCM, shared the information after the delivery of two dialysis machines – machines for treating kidney failure diseases – by the drug distribution company Pluribus Internacional.

“It is not enough. We have 14 machines [16 now, with the two new ones], but this is Maputo Central Hospital, which has a very high number of beds. We would ideally need 35 to 40 machines,” Chissico told journalists.

A total of 76 patients receive haemodialysis treatment at that service, which is necessary “for the rest of their lives”. Other patients seek assistance to recover from acute kidney failure, she added.

“It is not possible to respond fully to demand. We respond as far as we can, but we get patients coming in from all wards of Maputo Central Hospital,” she said. Many patients who start receiving medical care in other wards end up being referred for haemodialysis, because they suffer from kidney disease.

Chissico revealed that ten patients undergoing treatment at the HCM Haemodialysis Service died in 2023 due to complications associated with kidney failure.

On average, a thousand patients are diagnosed with kidney problems at HCM every year, some in need of chronic haemodialysis and others with recoverable kidney failure.

Chissico reported that, in private health care units, each patient undergoing treatment must pay between 10,000 and 15,000 meticais (€145.8 to €218.9) for each of the three necessary weekly sessions. The treatment is for free in the public health sector.

Source: Lusa