More kidney patients will soon be catered in the biggest government-owned hospital in Mindanao, Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), upon the operation of the Kidney Center, an official said.
“There is an ongoing construction of our Kidney Center at SPMC. This building is solely for kidney diseases. Hopefully (the construction will be done) within this year or by next year,” Dr. Trisha Manalaysay, an SPMC nephrologist, told reporters yesterday during the Kapehan sa Dabaw Press Conference at SM City Davao.
According to Manalaysay, the framework is already done and “they are working on it 24 hours (a day).”
Manalaysay said more kidney patients will be catered in the four-storey facility as they will be adding more dialysis machines.
“From 60 machines, it will (become) 100. So hopefully, we can cater to more patients because SPMC reaches out to the whole Mindanao,” she said.
With the addition of new machines, patients that will be catered is expected to grow by 50%. From the current 400 patients, they expect to serve about 800 to 1,000 patients.
The facility is located at the back of the Mindanao Heart Center inside the SPMC compound.
Manalaysay said the building is the vision of SPMC Chief of Hospital Dr. Leopoldo Vega.
“This is his project from his vision. We now have the heart center, maternal and wellness center, now this kidney center, and I think there will be an orthopedic center soon,” she said.
With the prospect of more patients, Manalaysay said their looming problem is on the number of nurses available.
“If there is a limiting factor, it is the manpower of nurses. We have many nurses who are now abroad,” she said.
She called young nurses, including fresh graduates, to serve in the country first.
“We need more nurses to serve them all. We are trying to encourage them to at least, after graduation, serve our country first even for just two to three years so that we can sustain our services here,” she said.
Manalaysay also noted that they have encouraged young nurses little by little to specialize in areas such as dialysis.
She however said their prime goal is for prevention “because these are government resources that come from us. Hopefully, we can promote (wellness) to lower the rate of kidney failure and dialysis,” she said.
