Financial assistance for dialysis patients to roll out next week

─ Health Minister calls on persons to get registered

The Government of Guyana in the 2022 budget has allocated approximately $180 million to alleviate the burden of expensive dialysis treatment for persons with chronic kidney disease.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, M.P, on Friday announced that the initiative will be rolled out in the coming week, providing $600, 000 annually to all patients on dialysis treatment.

“Right now, there are a number of persons who require dialysis and generally these persons would have end stage renal failure…the challenge however is that persons are not able to pay for their dialysis treatment.

“So, we want to start sometime next week to start distributing the cheques to these patients,” Dr. Anthony said.

The Health Minister said even with a number of non-governmental organisations providing dialysis to patients and subsidising the cost, it remains a challenge especially for persons receiving dialysis three times per week.

He is calling on persons to visit the Ministry of Health and get registered as soon as possible.

“We’re right now in the process of registering those patients, so anyone who knows of anybody who needs dialysis you can get them to register with the ministry,” he said.

Minister Anthony added that a medical document and the persons biodata will be required, to confirm that person is on dialysis or is recommended for the treatment. 

“We of course will have to validate that that person is actually on dialysis or was recommended for dialysis so a medical document to verify that will have to be produced and once we have that and the person’s biodata, then we’re able to put them on a database and we’ll be able to issue them with the funding.”

Additional information can be accessed through advertisements in the newspapers, social media, the health ministry’s Facebook page along with telephone numbers for further queries on the initiative.