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[av_heading heading=’Free dialysis in gov’t hospitals pushed’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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February 20, 2018
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MANILA – Indigent patients with kidney disease may avail themselves of free dialysis in any government hospital if Senate Bill No. 1329 gets passed into law.
The proposed “Dialysis Center Act” provides that every government-run hospital must establish, operate and maintain a dialysis ward/unit for poor patients.
Kidney disease is the country’s sixth leading cause of death in 2013, according to the Department of Health.
Nearly 23,000 patients had undergone dialysis due to kidney failure that year – up by 4,000 cases in 2004 – the Health department said.
The bill seeks to allow people in rural areas to avail themselves of “cost-effective” dialysis treatment, said the author, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara.
Many kidney patients had to travel to urban areas to receive dialysis treatment, which has to be done on a regular basis, Angara said.
“The optimum frequency of dialysis is three times a week but, because of its high cost and inaccessibility, some patients settle with less but with their health deteriorating more progressively,” he said.
“Worse,” he added, “some patients have died without a chance to undergo dialysis because they could not afford it.”
If the measure becomes law, government hospitals will be given two years to set up their respective dialysis wards or units.
Hospital administrations and officials that will refuse to comply will be fined with up to P100,000, the bill stated./PN
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