The Ministry of Health is to seek private sector’s cooperation in serving the increasing number of dialysis patients in the Kingdom.
According to Aqeel Al-Ghamdi, undersecretary to the Ministry for Hospital Affairs, the ministry has allocated SR1.9 billion for this national project, which is geared to solicit private sector cooperation in purchasing equipment and offering state-of-the art services to dialysis patients.
“We hope to benefit from the experience of foreign specialists who are in active contact with renal patients to provide them with the best services,” he said.
He added that the Ministry of Health formed a central committee with various subcommittees in health care to monitor the project and coordinate with the parent body.
The ministry, he said, would release a manual detailing the salient features of the project and that the private sector could respond to the project by expressing its willingness to participate.
“We want to use the best technology for the benefit of our patients and we would make dialysis services conform with the standards maintained in Europe and America.”
He said the project will be implemented in three phases. The first phase would cover a period of 24 months, which would embrace major cities and densely populated towns in the Kingdom. The second stage would be for a period of 12 months to cover small cities and the final stage will last for six months and include uncovered areas.
There are some 142 dialysis centers in the Kingdom, which includes 30 centers in Riyadh, 15 in Asir, 13 in Al-Qassim, 11 in Madinah and nine centers in the Eastern Province. Areas such as Tabuk, Hail and Jazan have seven centers each.
Hemodialysis patients totaled 9,892 and the number of patients with peritoneal dialysis has reached 471 patients.
