Jamaica already has its first clinic for kidney patients with low hemoglobin levels at the Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester.
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The center, promoted by the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA), is open every Wednesday and plans to serve around 179 people, to whom it will provide iron and blood transfusions, as well as erythropoietin injections to keep their blood levels in the normal range.
The Authority's regional technical director, Vitillius Holder, explained that many patients with kidney failure were being hospitalized, so the clinic was created to treat them without the need for hospitalization.
“Red blood cells contain hemoglobin, which carries oxygen around your body. Kidney disease also affects the way in which your body uses iron. If you have kidney disease, you may therefore need more iron to make the same amount of hemoglobin as people without kidney disease. We recognized many patients with renal impairment were being hospitalized, so we implemented the clinic as a tool to monitor and manage these patients. This helps to keep many patients out of the hospital,” Holder said.
Michael Bent, the Authority's regional director, assured that programs will continue to be established to provide quality medical care.
“As an authority, we continue to leverage our resources and develop programmes and initiatives to provide quality and effective healthcare to our clients. However, while we manage our patients in hospitals and clinics, I want to appeal to Jamaicans to take better care of their health in preventing or reducing the risks of non-communicable diseases which can result in conditions such as kidney failure, which is costly to treat. I want to also encourage persons who already have these complications to speak with our healthcare providers about managing these conditions so they do not get worse,” Bent said.
At the same time, he called on Jamaicans to take better care of their health and reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases, such as kidney failure, which are difficult to treat.