Kidney patients up 10% per year: Need for more dialysis centers on the upswing

CEBU, Philippines – Cebu needs more dialysis centers to answer to the growing number of kidney patients, which is a national trend, an industry executive observed.

Brian Philip Huang, president and chief executive of Metro Cebu Kidney Dialysis Center (MCKDC), noted that there has been a recent rise in the number of patients needing dialysis services. That trend, he said, signals that more dialysis service centers are needed.

According to the Philippine Renal Disease Registry (PRDR), it has been estimated that the number of patients starting dialysis rises by about 9-10% per year.

PRDR, a project of Philippine Society of Nephrology and National Kidney and Transplant Institute, said kidney patients have grown to about 14,000 nationwide from 12,000 in the last five years.

Huang said that Cebu, for instance, still needs more freestanding or outpatient dialysis centers to treat kidney patients, who are on stable condition, outside hospitals.

Hospital-based dialysis centers, he said, are intended for unstable patients.

According to a list from PRDR, there are only about 15 dialysis centers in Central Visayas -- most are in Cebu and are hospital-based.

Building a dialysis center is said to be capital intensive because of equipment acquisition and operational expenses.

While hospitals are increasing the number of their beds, Huang believed that more investments to put up outpatient clinics are needed to service more patients.

"There's an uptick in hospitals increasing number of beds," the chief executive said in an interview last Saturday at the opening of MCKDC in Guadalupe, Cebu City.

He said they invested around P5 million, excluding the acquisition of imported dialysis machines, to develop MCKDC, his family's business with some partners. The Huang family also operates Stanford Laboratory.

The freestanding clinic, which is already accredited by PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corp.), Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Department of Social Welfare and Development, has about 15 dialysis machines.

Huang said a session of dialysis could cost around P3380 but the rate could more likely go down because of the competition in the market. A patient normally has to undergo two or three sessions per week.

Dialysis is a way of cleaning a person's blood when his kidneys can no longer function well. Kidney failure is considered the ninth leading cause of death in the country.