Bahrain - A specialised centre for kidney dialysis could be constructed in the Northern Governorate as part of a proposal under study.
The Northern Municipal Council has passed the proposal, which it said was necessary due to the increasing number of patients with chronic kidney diseases who require dialysis on a daily basis.
Councillor Abdulla Al Qubaisi, who is spearheading the proposal, said latest statistics show there are more than 1,334 patients who require daily dialysis.
However, he said there are only 50 beds available at the Abdulrahman Kanoo Kidney Dialysis Centre in Muharraq, 30 beds in Salmaniya Medical Complex’s Kidney Disease Unit, and 60 beds in the Shaikh Abdullah Bin Khalid Al Khalifa Centre for Kidney Dialysis in the Hunainiya Valley.
“There are more than 1,334 patients that require this procedure and there are only 140 beds available in the country and that’s outrageous,” he said during a council meeting.
“There are people dying and we, the Northern Governorate, have the highest population density and we don’t even have a general hospital in our governorate.
“I have a case of one woman in my constituency who is driven daily from Hamad Town to SMC by her daughter from 10pm to 2am to get the treatment.
“We need a specialised hospital in the Northern Governorate specialising in chronic diseases such as kidney failure, sickle cell anaemia, and cancer.
Centre
“It doesn’t matter if they allocate a hospital or a centre or a room, as long as it is a location designed to reduce the suffering of these people.”
During debate on the proposal, councillor Hussain Al A’ali, raised a technical issue with the proposal to change the term ‘specialised hospital’ to ‘specialised centre’, explaining the former means that several specialties should be present under one roof and not just one specialty.
“I personally support this proposal whole-heartedly, but we need to change the name,” he told his colleagues.
“We can ask for land to be allocated for a general hospital and then the first step could be constructing the kidney disease unit and then expanding it according to the needs.
“Calling it a hospital is wrong.”
His concerns were shared by fellow councillor Zaina Jassim, who highlighted that a proposal had already been sent to Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf to allocate land in the governorate for a hospital, so the council should avoid “repeating itself”.
During voting, the council approved the proposal to construct a dialysis centre in the Northern Governorate, which will now be referred to Mr Khalaf for review.
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