by Bill Peckham
RenalWEB links to a story in the Saudi Gazette Woefully Inadequate: 9,600 kidney failure patients, 40 dialysis machines. Come on, the story doesn't support that headline:
“There are 41 machines, one of which is no longer in service, and we need 50,” he said. Al-Remaid said the department needed 14 new machines to cope with the large number of renal failure patients in the region.
“About 150 renal failure patients visit our department every day,” he said.
That's 40 machines for 300 people, assuming 3 day a week schedules. They're running four shifts to keep up. Not very alarming. The 9,600 number is, of course, the total number of people in Saudi Arabia that have stage 5 chronic kidney disease, which is the article's lede:
The Kingdom’s 9,600 kidney failure patients also face long waiting lists for treatment, a situation which only serves to exacerbate their health problems.
Even this is not too alarming. According to Wikipedia the Kingdom has about 21.5 million native residents (one imagines resident foreigners with CKD5 are sent home, though it should noted that this should be balanced against free dialysis for foreigners during the Umrah or the Hajj). Overall "CKD5 being treated with dialysis" incidence rate in the Kingdom is less than 1 in 2,000. Compared to the US, with over 350,000 people using hemodialysis, out of a population of over 300,000,000 (more than 1 in 900). Additionally, the Kingdom does have a long standing PD program. The Kingdom is doing just fine.
"9,600 kidney failure patients also face long waiting lists for treatment"
Ok, I'll bite..
How do you have a WAITING LIST for dialysis? Was something lost in translation here? 'Cause if you are on a waiting list for dialysis,and you wait long enough (in many cases two weeks) you die.
Posted by: Anna Bennett | November 25, 2008 at 11:12 AM
heh
Long waiting list for their preferred schedule?
Posted by: Bill Peckham | November 25, 2008 at 11:27 AM