Wednesday, June 18, 2025
By JADE RUSSELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
THE Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) has spent over $15m in the past three years on dialysis care for approximately 600 patients, an unsustainable cost burden as kidney failure cases surge nationwide.
Speaking at a press briefing ahead of the country’s first living donor kidney transplant — set to take place today — Dr Rhea Thurston-Carroll, consultant transplant nephrologist and director of nephrological services at Princess Margaret Hospital, confirmed the Bahamas currently has around 600 people receiving dialysis treatment.
PHA managing director Aubynette Rolle said the government cannot manage the caseload alone, relying heavily on private healthcare providers across multiple islands.
“We are incapable of managing them within the healthcare system. Therefore, we have partners on the outside who take care of patients. It’s not only New Providence – it’s in Abaco, it’s in Exuma, it’s in Grand Bahama. It’s all over. So we depend on them,” she said.
Ms Rolle stressed that the financial model is untenable. “The expense is about $15m. If we tally today, I think we’re a little over, because that amount increases as patients get diagnosed with chronic renal disease, and are required mostly [to undergo] haemodialysis,” she sid.
She added that investing in transplant infrastructure could reduce long-term costs and improve outcomes.
The PHA’s new Renal Transplant Programme aims to shift the paradigm. Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville previously noted that dialysis consumes a significant portion of the national health budget. Cases of end-stage renal disease have been rising, driven largely by diabetes and hypertension.
Comments
ThisIsOurs says...
Hmmm... we are in a health crisis. (Financial crisis. Education crisis. Crime crisis)
How long does someone have to wait on a list for a donor?
On the National Kidney Foundation's website I see the following:
"*The transplant waitlist matches deceased donors with kidney patients for a transplant. How long it takes to get one depends many factors, but it can take 2-5 years or more.*"
But that's a US based stat and it doesnt indicate the wait for a living donor.
How many surgeries can be done per year? What is the rate of growth? How many persons are added to the treatment list every year? How many of those persons are in obesity related renal failure?
This new offering will be a miracle for some people but I wonder how far it will go to putting a dent in the problem. The true solution is probably lifestyle reform. But to know that you'd have to answer the other questions.
Posted 18 June 2025, 2:16 p.m. Suggest removal
quavaduff says...
Please people, get off that that fast food and reduce the carbs (rice and macaroni) .... double up on the fish, beans and "greens". Diabetes is off the charts in our Bahamaland. Oh yeah, and exercise by walking, running and swimming. Let's cure ourselves.
Posted 18 June 2025, 5:37 p.m. Suggest removal
Porcupine says...
thisisours and guavaduff,
Both quite right.
So, why do we continue to elect people who can't understand these basics?
Once we see an education system fail, and those in power continue to speak as if they know something, the result is what we're seeing now.
A five year window to take as much as you can, the People be damned.
We've done this to ourselves, yes?
Posted 19 June 2025, 9:12 a.m. Suggest removal
Twocent says...
How much did the MofH say I could get for my kidney? Cost of living going up, can’t afford a home, barely afford food. Might not help me tho, since we are a nation that has never stopped the stream of illegal trafficking, and that whole supply and demand thing comes into ply.
Posted 19 June 2025, 1:51 p.m. Suggest removal
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