The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) now have the internal capacity to handle kidney transplants.
According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Eldoret-based public hospital Dr. Wilson Aruasa, they are now doing Kidney transplants as a routine surgery.
This makes MTRH among few public hospitals doing regular Kidney transplants in the country.
“We have the internal capacity to do Kidney transplants successfully. Even the most complex that we were not daring to touch we are now able to do,” said Dr. Aruasa.
“Every week as long as long as there is a patient pair that is ready – that is the recipient and the donor, we do it with internal capacity,” he added.
MTRH started doing Kidney transplants about 10 years ago. To date, they have done over 150 successful transplants.
They also do a follow-up on patients that have had Kidney transplants abroad.
But as more hospitals are now able to handle the procedure, Dr. Aruasa notes that the number of patients flying out for the transplant has drastically dropped.
He also points out the need for patients with Kidney problems to consider going for a transplant, a procedure he notes is far cost-effective.
A kidney patient requires weekly dialysis sessions – whose cost accumulates to between Ksh80,000 and Ksh100,000.
One dialysis session costs Ksh12,000 in a public hospital, with the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) covering Ksh9,500 per session.
“Even as we do dialyzes, we do it with intention of doing kidney transplant. When we do a kidney transplant, the post-kidney transplant medication is Ksh30k a month. Doing a kidney transplant for a patient who needs it is the way to go because it is cost-effective,” noted Dr. Aruasa.
The MTRH boss challenged NHIF to consider including post-kidney transplant patients among those covered “so that we quickly move patients from dialysis into transplant”.
Dr. Aruasa spoke during the making of World Kidney Day.
World Kidney Day is a global campaign to raise awareness of the importance of our kidneys to overall health and to reduce the frequency and impact of kidney disease and associated health problems worldwide.
