With the maintenance contract for blood dialysis machines having expired on November 30, kidney patients expressed their concern on Thursday over the lack of new machines even as demand for them increases.
“The issue should have been resolved yesterday,” the president of the Pancyprian Association of Friends of Kidney Patients Andreas Michaelides told a press conference and called on Health Minister Giorgos Pamborides to deal with the issue.
Kidney sufferers are worried that the old dialysis machines will not be able to cope with the growing demand. The health ministry says the electromechanicial services are responsible.
“The problem lies with the process, not with the ministry but with the electromechanical service of the ministry of communications and works who processes this on behalf of the ministry,” health ministry spokeswoman Elpida Hadjivassiliou said on Thursday. “It is about procurement.”
But director of the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Services Loucas Timotheou denied the responsibility lay with his department. He explained there was a tender for a new manufacturer of dialysis machines but lack of staff and space contributed towards the decision not to award the contract.
“There is no point in increasing the machines if there is no staff to operate them and no space,” he said. “We are not responsible, this is the health ministry.”
He assured patients that there was no need to worry. “People are happy with what we have, and this will continue. In Nicosia, there is already a new ward, and maybe another shift will be added.” On Friday, according to Timotheou, his department and the health ministry will meet to determine how to proceed.
There will also be 15 new machines which are going to be on standby in different towns in case something should happen to the existing ones.
But this was met with scepticism from the secretary of the kidney patients’ association, Klairi Ioannou, who said she had not heard of the new machines and did not believe they would materialise.
“The machines don’t have a long life, and some are nearly destroyed,” she said. “Now the machines work seven days, it is not like before, there is more demand. What happens when they stop? We are talking about our lives here.”
At the moment, 90 dialysis machines have reached their maximum number of operating hours ranging from 45,000 to 50,000 hours, according to the consumers’ association.
Michaelides announced on Thursday afternoon he will meet with the health minister to discuss the serious issues facing kidney patients.
At the press conference, he said the tender process had not followed correct procedures and resulted in the upkeep of an existing monopoly.
“I have too many questions about what is happening, whose interests are at work,” he said, adding that the association should be involved as it is an issue that directly concerns them and they would make sure procedures were legitimate.
Kidney patients can only live up to five days without treatment on a dialysis machines. Usually treatment takes place two to three times a week and lasts about four hours.
The treatment cleans the patients’ blood, removes a build-up of toxins and regulates potassium and electrolyte levels. The machines artificially perform the same job as a healthy kidney would.
