(De Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – The National Kidney Dialysis Centre (NNC) of the Academic Hospital Paramaribo (AZP) has the potential to become the best in the CARICOM. The new centre was opened at Picorniestraat yesterday and meets the great demand for dialysis chairs nationally. A project proposal for a new building for sixty dialysis chairs on the same street is ready. The centre at Henk Arronstraat will be closed then. According to Robert Brohim, vice chairman of the board of the AZP, not only dialysis is performed at the NNC. “The patient is fully treated by a team of experts such as the nephrologist, dietician and social worker”. He says this is an important condition to apply for international certification of the centre. At the centre, patients undergo treatment that replaces kidney function. At the moment, the 300 dialysis patients cost the country SRD 30 million a year. According to NNC manager Glenn Uiterloo, five to ten percent of the total costs could be used to keep 200 persons from having to undergo prolonged dialysis. “The NNC urges the government and insurers to invest in prevention in the coming years, and namely pre-dialysis. This could provide many health and thus financial benefits”, Uiterloo says.
