STATEMENT BY THE RT HON PRIME MINISTER

 

DR B.S.S. DLAMINI

 

AT THE LAUNCH OF THE RENAL DIALYSIS UNIT AT HLATHIKHULU GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL

 

MONDAY 29 APRIL 2013

 

Honourable Minister

Chiefs

Representative of the Tokushukai Group

Regional Administrator

Excellencies of the Diplomatic Corps

Members of Parliament

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

 

 

Every time I attend the launch of a new initiative or programme that enhances the well-being of the people of our country I am filled with pride, and especially on the introduction of a service that improves our national health services and saves lives.

And that is precisely what a renal unit does, and why today is another very special day during my time as Prime Minister.

As most, if not all of you, know, my late wife, Jane Dlamini received renal dialysis support for ten years from the unit at Mbabane Government Hospital. Those ten years were never going to give her the quality of life that she had enjoyed prior to her kidney failure, but it gave her life itself, and that was enormously valuable for her, myself and our entire family.

So, the launch of a renal unit here at the Hlathikhulu Government Hospital, with ten renal dialysis units, each able to cater for three patients at a time, will provide the Shiselweni Region with a crucially important life-saving service.

Prior to this, renal units existed only at the Mbabane Government Hospital and the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Manzini which had a total of 18 renal dialysis units. The Hlathikhulu unit will take the number of units nationally to 28 and that effectively amounts to a total of 84 patients who, countrywide, can be treated simultaneously at any one time.

The many experts we have here today, who are very familiar with the reasons for needing this vital medical service, will allow me a few moments to reflect on the significance of renal dialysis.

Renal care is all about the kidney – a crucially important organ of which we have two in the body, purifying the blood and serving the urinary system. Failure of the kidneys is a very serious condition, indeed fatal in the absence of the necessary remedial treatment. Renal dialysis enables the purification of the blood to be done by machine, during a number of sessions each week, thus keeping the patient alive.

Kidney disease is prevalent in Swaziland for a number of reasons, mainly owing to the existence of hypertension, diabetes, and tuberculosis. The HIV and AIDS pandemic contributes extensively to the prevalence of kidney disease. Awareness of imminent failure of the kidneys is not at a sophisticated level and, as a result, many cases come late for treatment and require renal dialysis.

Our national dialysis services started as recently as 1999, thanks to the good work of Dr Nimrod Matakere of the Mbabane Government Hospital who had been confronted with a young patient with malaria who required a dialysis unit to assist his treatment. Dr Matakere’s efforts gave rise to the first renal dialysis unit being installed and attached to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Mbabane Government Hospital. We have also been very grateful for the RFM Renal Unit which was launched in 2011 with the help of the Taiwanese Medical Mission.

The present Minister for Health took up the running, so to speak, for an expansion of our renal dialysis in a very productive way, during interaction with his opposite number, the Minister of Health in Mozambique. Swaziland’s good neighbour, the Republic of Mozambique, had already established ties with the Tokushukai Group who provide dialysis services. It is that organisation which has been kind enough to donate the dialysis equipment and the perishable supplies for the Hlathikhulu Government Hospital. The renovation of the site and installation of the rest of the equipment has been provided by His Majesty’s Government. The medical team, consisting of a doctor, two nurses and a biomedical technician for the equipment, were all trained by the Tokushukai Group in Tokyo, with Dr Matakere in support.

This is a great day for the people of Shiselweni and, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government I wish to express our deepest gratitude to the Tokushukai Group and extend our warmest welcome to the Kingdom of Swaziland to the representative of that group who is with us today.

And I take the opportunity to pay tribute to Dr Tokuda who, as a young person, lost a sibling who had been too poor to get medical treatment for kidney failure. Dr Tokuda, through his own prodigious efforts, built up the Tokushukai group of companies that now owns 68 hospitals and has a mission statement which declares that “every human being has the right to access good health (services) at (a) reasonable price, which (health services) are affordable with or without insurance cover.”

That is a noble mission statement, and one which we echo here in the Kingdom of Swaziland.

Our desire to keep our renal facilities fully up to date will result in the establishment of a large state-of-the-art renal dialysis unit at the Mbabane Government Hospital as part of a public/private partnership with the Fresenius Group. Construction will start soon.

It is now my honour, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, to declare this new renal dialysis unit at Hlathikhulu Government Hospital officially launched.

Thank you.