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Gweru Provincial Hospital superintendent Dr Fabian Mashingaidze explains how a dialysis machine operates while a patient listens yesterday

Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Correspondent
A RENAL unit has been opened at the Gweru Provincial Hospital – providing instant relief for patients with kidney problems who were previously forced to travel to either Harare or Bulawayo for treatment.The hospital’s superintendent, Dr Fabian Mashingaidze, yesterday said the renal unit started operating last Monday with four dialysis machines.

“At the moment, we have four dialysis machines but we intend to expand,” Dr Mashingaidze said.  A number of patients are already visiting the hospital and since we started operating  the section, each machine has been servicing three patients a day.”

Dr Mashingaidze said patients were being put on the dialysis machine twice a week with the four machines already failing to cope with the huge demand for the service.

“This is the first time we have opened a renal unit at provincial level and for long, patients with chronic renal failure were being referred to either Harare or Bulawayo,” he explained.

“Patients are now flocking to the hospital to get the service and we are already being overwhelmed by the numbers. We’ll try to expand in the future so that we can assist more patients.”

When Chronicle visited the renal unit at the hospital yesterday, three patients were undergoing dialysis.
“I’m very happy that we now have a renal unit here. I have been a kidney patient for the past 10 years and been travelling to Harare twice a week to be put on a dialysis machine for all these years,” said one of the patients, a female.

Another patient, who only identified himself as Chimedza, said: “This is a huge relief for us. I’ve been getting this service in Bulawayo for years and I want to thank the hospital and our government for this effort. The hospital should continue to strive to improve.”

A dialysis machine helps remove toxic substances in the body for patients with chronic renal failure. It is a life-long kidney replacement, which acts as an artificial kidney.

In developed countries, however, chronic renal failure patients undergo kidney transplant.