Opposition Spokesman on Health and Wellness, Dr Morais Guy, has repeated his call for urgent attention to be given to increasing the number of renal dialysis units islandwide, to adequately deal with the increasing number of Jamaicans suffering from renal failure.

Guy repeated his call during his contribution to the 20022/23 Sectoral Debate in Gordon House on May 10.

“Last year, I spoke about the country’s requirement to have more renal dialysis units and the recommendation to have these attached initially to the regional hospitals before expanding further to the type B hospitals.

“The many thousands of renal failure patients are being condemned to an early death because they cannot afford dialysis in the private sector,” Guy lamented.

He argued that with the rising cost of medical sundries, one should shudder to think of the costs it will attract to do dialysis at a private institution in today’s marketplace.

“It is all well and good that we speak of the absolute need to prevent these from occurring by the various public health measures advocated last year, but we are speaking of the now. Unfortunately, no amount of corrective treatment will help them except renal dialysis,” Guy stated.

Continuing, he said: “Last year, I highlighted this pressing concern and presented data on patients awaiting treatment; a four-year wait at Kingston Public Hospital and a two-year wait at the University Hospital of the West Indies. The waiting time has not decreased in 2022, it might be worse”.

Guy, a medical doctor by training, said it was against this background that the suggestion is being made to include renal dialysis in the public-private partnerships for health care delivery dubbed ‘Enhanced Health Care Delivery Project’ which is mainly for diagnostic radiology services.

“We are making that call so that the many suffering patients out there will be able to get this critical care, as there was no mention of dialysis treatment in the Minister’s (sectoral) presentation,” said Guy.