The Health Affairs Directorate in Madinah has launched a second center for dialysis that can serve 150 patients daily, Al-Madina newspaper reported on Wednesday. Dr. Badr Abdul Rahman Al-Humaid, kidney consultant and chairman of the committee to care for kidney patients, said the center with 30 dialysis units, is the second out of five centers to be established in the holy city to serve about 1,000 patients. He said three centers will be opened by the end of next year. He added that a number of dialysis centers will be established in villages and remote areas to cover the entire region. Humaid said the new center, which is located in Al-Aziziyah district, is being operated by a specialized company that is affiliated to the Health Ministry. "The center has been established with the latest and advanced international standards and has been furnished with the most advanced medical equipment," he said. Humaid commended the ministry's plan to establish dialysis units in its hospitals and said the first of the dialysis center established in Madinah, which is called King Abdul Aziz Center, was serving as many as 860 men and women kidney patients in three shifts. He said the new center has quarantine units for patients with contagious diseases and also has a lab to make tests for patients before and after dialyses. Humaid asked for early screening tests to avoid kidney failure and said an average of about 120 people in the Kingdom develop kidney diseases every year. He also asked for spreading the culture of organ donation to save the lives of kidney patients and said dialysis is not a remedy or a final cure.
