Danger looms as 230 kidney patients weekly battle for 12 dialysis machines in Kano

Danger is looming in Kano State over inadequate dialysis machines to handle the treatment of patients with kidney failure, PRNigeria reports.

A recent PRNigeria investigation while confirming that Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is on the rise in Kano, also revealed that over 200 kidney patients in the State depend on only 12 functional dialysis machines at Kano’s two biggest Hospitals, the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) and Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital.

According to the investigation, about 160 patients with kidney-related ailments visit the Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital every week. Also, there are at least 15 new patients that come for dialysis, at the Specialist Hospital, every week.

While at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital there are up to 70 patients every week on the roster of ‘maintaining dialysis patients’.

But in a week at least 40 dialysis treatments or more are being done, and some will be waiting.

Despite the expensiveness of dialysis treatment, PRNigeria gathered that many of the few dialysis machines at the two biggest kidney treatment centers in Kano are not functioning.

The PRNigeria investigation also revealed that at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, only eight of 20 dialysis machines work at the moment, and many patients suffering with CKD wait for more than 10 hours to get dialysis.

Aliyu Abdu, a Professor of Medicine and Nephrology at the Bayero University Kano, who also is a consultant Nephrologist and Head of Renal Unit of the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, said it is very difficult to cope working with few dialysis machines with many patients waiting for treatment.

“We used to have up to 20 dialysis machines, but because of inadequate funding and other challenges at the moment we don’t have more than 5 normal machines that are functioning.

“It is very difficult to cope. You’ll see patients queuing for 10 hours or 15 hours to get dialysis because when you put a patient on a dialysis machine, the patient must stay on the machine for at least 4 hours and then you need another 1 hour to clean and disinfect the machine before it is ready for the next patient. So you can see in a day, you cannot take more than 3 patients on a machine.”

At the Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital, regarded as one of the cheapest treatment center for dialysis in Kano, only four of the six available dialysis machines work.

PRNigeria gathered that in all the kidney treatment done at the hospital, the state Government subsidizes the dialysis fee to an affordability rate. Yet, the number of patients suffering from CKD sighted at the unit waiting for dialysis is shockingly large.

The Acting HOD of Dialysis Unit at Abdullahi Wase Teaching Hospital, Dr. Usman Adamu, said: “Dialysis in this hospital is very cheap because the first session costs at 15,000 and subsequent sessions at 8,000 naira each which is still affordable compared to other centers.

“Here we have about four functional dialysis machines and two are about to be repaired. Similarly, at this hospital we receive an average number of 60 to 80 patients per clinic and 160 patients every week with kidney related diseases, and amongst which many of them need dialysis. Also, every week, there are at least 15 new patients that come for dialysis in this hospital”. (PRNigeria)