SINGAPORE – The National Kidney Foundation (NKF), Singapore’s largest dialysis provider, will open five new dialysis centers by 2025 to meet growing demand as kidney failure cases rise.
Its chief executive Tim Oei told The Straits Times that all 41 dialysis centers across Singapore are currently operating at close to 90% capacity and are providing treatment for emergency cases or patients who must be quarantined, such as those with Type B infection. People with hepatitis virus infection) set aside time. Second-rate.
Mr Oei said NKF receives more than 100 new applications for dialysis slots every month, about double the number five years ago, when the company had 36 dialysis centres.
“It’s concerning. Slowly but surely these numbers are rising,” he said.
Six new patients are diagnosed with kidney failure every day in Singapore. Dialysis removes waste products and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys stop working properly. Without dialysis or organ transplantation, these patients will eventually die.
NKF will open a dialysis center at the Sky Vista @ Bukit Batok Housing Board project in January 2024, which has been long delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This will replace a small center nearby.
By May 2024, another center will open at Sengkang Community Hospital. This will be the second dialysis center located at a community hospital after Yishun Community Hospital. Mr Oei said patients at the hospital found it very useful as they did not need to take ambulances to dialysis centres.
The next three dialysis centers will open in the HDB areas of Bidadari, Fernvale and Punggol in 2025, taking the total number of NKF centers to 45.
On average, each dialysis center has 22 dialysis stations and can serve up to 132 patients per week.
New cases of kidney failure, also known as stage 5 chronic kidney disease, increased 42% over the decade, from 1,587 cases in 2011 to 2,249 cases in 2020. Diabetes and hypertension are the main causes.
The prevalence of chronic kidney disease has also increased significantly, from 8.7% in 2019-2020 to 13.8% in 2021-2022.
Mr Ng said this means that about 500,000 Singapore residents now have the disease and are at a higher risk of progressing to kidney failure.
Opening new centers is not enough to solve the problem. NKF has previously said it will also renovate at least eight centers that are 20 years or older by 2030. Mr Wong said this involved expanding the floor space to be able to accommodate more patients.