Minister highlights need for kidney dialysis treatment

HEALTH and HIV/AIDS Minister Elias Kapavore, on his first visit to the Papua New Guinea Kidney Foundation on Wednesday, said people needed dialysis treatment in the country.
The PNG Kidney Foundation is the only organisation set up to provide affordable haemodialysis services.
Kapavore thanked the foundation for the important service it was providing to the people and said the Government would be supporting it to
make the service accessible and affordable.
He said many patients were going through this because of the type of the lifestyles they chose to live today.
“It’s a huge need at the moment as many people are in this category of patients who need kidney dialysis on a regular basis,” he said.
“The message now is prevention.
“Our health team should do public health awareness so people are aware of the cause of kidney diseases.
“People need to do regular medical checkups so they can detect the health problem early and get treated early.”
Chief executive officer Dr Molumi Paki said because of limited resources, the focus needed to be on prevention and early detection.
He said the machines for treating kidney-related issues were available but the facility to accommodate them had not been built to standard.
“Running a kidney dialysis facility is very expensive and for a hospital like Port Moresby General Hospital, it cannot run this because of the current budget,” he said.
“It is good to have public partnerships so that we can partner with foundations to run such facilities so it will take the running cost off the normal operational budget.”