PENGUNJUNG SETIA

25 Ogos 2010

RM500MIL FOR DIALYSIS TREATMENT CENTRE

TANGKAK: Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman wants his fellow Johoreans to observe the credo, ‘prevention is better than cure’ as a measure to prevent diseases.

Speaking to residents here, he said many people suffer from heart problem, hypertension, diabetes and other illnesses due to the food they eat every day.

“Although we are living the modern world with better living standards as compared to our fathers and grandfathers, we tend to suffer from these illnesses.

“The reason is our lack of exercise such as walking, riding bicycles, chopping woods and other tasks which we used to do every day in the old days,” he said, when opening the Tangkak Lions Club haemodialysis centre here.

Abdul Ghani said diabetes is a modern illness which could lead to kidney failure and many sufferers needed dialysis treatment.

Reaching out: Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman comforting Chai Ai Kim, 64, during her haemodialysis treatment at the dialysis centre.

He said dialysis treatment is not cheap and in some cases – patients would undergo the process twice a week, thus making their lives miserable and unproductive.

With kidney ailment at its advanced stages, Abdul Ghani said the patients are not the only people who would suffer as their families also affected – resulting a drop in productive citizens.

To prevent such illnessses, the Mentri Besar said people should take good care of their health and refrain from taking too much sugar in their food or drink and exercise.

He said the state spends RM1mil every year to fund for dialysis treatment for civil servants, including its retirees when they suffered renal failure.

On the Tangkak Lions Club haemodialysis treatment service, he said it was noble for the non-profit organisation to provide subsidised haemodialysis treatment to needy patients who pay RM25 per treatment.

He said the centre operates six days a week caters for 20 patients and manned by a team of six staff, including a medical assistant and a clerk.

Abdul Ghani added that since the operational cost including staff salaries runs at RM40,000 a month, the state decided to provide the centre with a RM500,000 cash allocation.

“We hope the centre will provide treatment to as many renal patients in Ledang as possible and also to outsiders, especially those from Jasin in Malacca.

“We also call on members of the public to donate to the centre to enable it to buy more dialysis machines after this.”

SOURCE: THE STAR, AUGUST 25, 2010

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