This blog is about the nephrology service in Sabah. We are here to provide information about our units.
Sabah Nephro is the Sabah Renal Resource Center. The center provides renal patients with information and educational material to assist them in managing the effects of renal disease on their lifestyle.
The main health care provider for renal patients in Sabah is the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Malaysia. We are doctors and nurses working in hospitals funded by MOH. These are public hospitals. We take care of most of the renal patients (>90%) in Sabah.
Nephrology services available in Sabah include hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, consultation and treatment for renal patients, including follow-up for renal transplant patients. Hemodialysis remains the main option of renal replacement therapy (RRT) in Sabah. The number of hemodialysis patients increases rapidly over the past three years as MOH has invested heavily in installing dialysis centers all over the districts in Sabah. In general, dialysis in MOH funded hospital is very affordable but ironically this life saving treatment is neither widely nor easily available due to various socioeconomic reasons.
Currently, renal transplants are mainly performed for those with potential living-related kidney donors. Opportunity of cadaveric renal transplant is scarce, just like all other places in Malaysia. We send the patients and their donors to Kuala Lumpur Hospital or Selayang Hospital for the transplant surgery. Renal transplants done in Malaysia are still the minority. Most of our other transplant patients pay for their organs in those countries where commercial transplants are available.
Efforts have been made to improve the care of renal patients. Beside striving to increase the financial budget each year, a very important but yet difficult task is to have enough number of staff. Not only nephrologists and medical officers, staff nurses and medical assistants are also in high demand.
Today, we have three nephrologists (one paediatric nephrologist and two adult nephrologists) working in MOH funded hospitals in Sabah. Some of the dialysis centers are potentially expandable to accept more patients but unfortunately shortage of staff has prevented us to proceed further.
Despite all these limitations, our staff are still working diligently to develop the nephrology services in Sabah. Preventive measures, delaying deterioration of chronic kidney disease and providing quality RRT for ESRD (end stage renal disease) or AKI (acute kidney injury) are the directions of our daily works.
By starting this blog, we hope to provide another channel of communication; among us, the health care workers and also enable our patients to access us more easily. Ultimately, we aim to deliver our service with quality.
