The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is offering seven-month free dialysis sessions to two categories of persons suffering kidney diseases in the country – those below 18 years and those above 60 years.
These patients will receive all eight dialysis sessions per month for free under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) from June to December 2024.
We wish the offer forming part of the scheme’s 20th anniversary celebration could have been extended to all the chronic kidney disease patients who need the dialysis sessions.
That notwithstanding, the offer is commendable because, at least, it would save the beneficiaries and their families some financial burden and give some relief to those patients within the period.
Medical experts say dialysis is usually started as soon as the kidneys fail and the resulting typical symptoms occur, including weight loss, skin discoloration, a urine-like body odour, shortness of breath, chest pain, irregular pulse, and confusion and loss of consciousness.
This is the last stage of chronic kidney disease, when the kidneys can no longer function properly and harmful substances build up inside the body.
The unfortunate thing at this stage is that dialysis becomes a treatment that the patient has to go through for the rest of his or her life as a part of everyday routine.
This means after the NHIA offer period, beneficiaries will have to revert to paying for the dialysis treatment at their own cost, which is usually borne by families as the patients cannot do any work.
Even in the case of patients who have investment or the resources to pay for the treatment, the experience of the family caring for such patients is harrowing.
Even though currently medical science has not been able to stop chronic kidney disease (CKD), which calls for the dialysis, the burden of CKD can be reduced if all healthy people can take precautions against kidney diseases except in the cases where the triggers are hereditary.
The burden of CKD is said to be rapidly rising in developing countries due to ever-increasing rise in key risk factors, including hypertension and diabetes.
The CKD incidence and prevalence worldwide is estimated to be between 10 and 13 per cent and it is now a significant public health challenge in sub-Saharan Africa which has reported prevalence of 13.9 per cent, with Ghana recording its prevalence at 13.3 per cent.
What is sad is that studies show that as a non-communicable disease, CKD has not received the necessary attention in most sub-Saharan Africa countries, including Ghana.
This is incontestable in the country, when we consider the number of CKD patients and the extremely limited facilities for dialysis treatment in the country.
We cannot tell whether the limited number of the facilities makes the treatment expensive in the country, though.
In the circumstances, the public health education about triggers of kidney diseases should be increased for those who can contract them through their lifestyles to take precautions or live with all the burdens that come with such diseases when they take the risk.
But until that happens, let the NHIA seek ways to give intervening offers to all CKD patients who need dialysis treatment in the country to reduce their plight.