About 35.6 per cent of the admission to the Dialysis Unit at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) are reported to be from the Upper East region due to the fact that the region lacks renal unit set up for patients in need of dialysis.
The patients have had to travel to the Tamale Teaching Hospital at their own expense.
To this end, increased awareness and early detection of kidney conditions have been necessitated to bridge the gap for better care.
This was revealed by the Director of Medical Affairs at the TTH Dr Adam Atiku .
Speaking to journalists on the sideline of a free screening for staff and general public on World Kidney Day in Bolgatanga, he said “We have seen increasing number of people coming with kidney problems, most of them are kidney failures.
“When you look at our data that we have at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, you will see that almost 35.6 per cent of the people that we see at our dialysis centre, they come from the Upper East region.
“This was done before the Northern Region was split into North East and Savanah. So, that is why we decided to come to Upper East region to find out what is happening. Why are so many people getting kidney problems and they are being referred to us for the dialysis. So our focus now is to create the awareness about kidney problems and then see how we can prevent it or or even if people develop it how we can pick them early so that they don’t get to the end stage that will need dialysis.”
Over the last couple of years, the TTH has been providing tertiary healthcare services in specific specialise areas such as nephrological services in line with its mandate of providing advanced clinical health services, training of undergraduate and postgraduate medical and other health professionals and researching into health issues for the purposes of improving health outcomes albeit with a lot of challenges.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
