The centre will serve the underprivileged and trial medical technology and individualised fitness programmes.

 

To increase its outreach and better serve more needy kidney patients in Singapore, the Kidney Dialysis Foundation (KDF) has opened a new dialysis centre at Admiralty Link. Located at 405 Admiralty Link, the new San Wang Wu Ti-KDF Dialysis Centre was officially opened by Senior Minister of State for Health, Communications, and Information, Dr Janil Puthucheary.

The new centre was made possible by a donation from San Wang Wu Ti Religious Society of S$1.1 million to support the renovation and equipment costs of the project. Lee Inn Peng, honorary president of the San Wang Wu Ti Religious Society, said: “I have a special interest in helping kidney patients, as my late father was a kidney patient. With the support from the society, I believe that this new KDF dialysis centre will make a difference to kidney patients who need it the most in this area.”

The majority of KDF’s patients live on less than S$1,200 monthly. However, the monthly cost of dialysis treatments and medication is more than S$2,000. With the assistance of KDF subsidies and government grants, 80 percent of KDF patients receive fully subsidised treatments, with no out-of-pocket payment.

The San Wang Wu Ti-KDF Dialysis Centre at Admiralty Link is KDF’s fourth dialysis centre. The Foundation’s other three dialysis centres are located at Bishan, Ghim Moh and Kreta Ayer.

The new centre is equipped with 19 haemodiafiltration (HDF) machines, granting 114 kidney patients a second chance at life. HDF – an advanced form of dialysis, is gentler on the patient’s body and reduces side effects of treatments such as blood pressure fluctuations and muscle wasting.

Said Dr Puthucheary: “End-stage renal disease is a growing nationwide concern. Today, we have about six new individuals diagnosed with kidney failure daily, up from four in 2011. This trend is set to increase as Singapore’s population ages, coupled with an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes.”

The new dialysis centre will help many as well as serve as a testbed for the Foundation to actively introduce the use of medical technology (MedTech) and customised exercise programmes into patients’ treatment and care. KDF has engaged Hublet to implement a secure and multi-pronged strategy to improve patients’ dialysis experience, by providing entertainment during dialysis treatments and delivering educational resources such as digital health brochures, recipes and pre-recorded health webinars that patients can refer to and better manage their conditions. If the trial is successful, Hublet can be used in the Foundation’s future efforts for tele-befriending, as well as visiting with volunteers and caregivers. It will also be used to support tele-consultation between patients and doctors.

Together with local fitness company Retrofit, KDF will be working with its specialists to keep patients active through exercise intervention despite being bound to dialysis chairs for four hours each dialysis session. Specialists from Retrofit lead patients through individualised physical exercises to improve their movement independence. The exercise programme helps to strengthen patients’ existing muscles, thus reducing the risk of fall among patients. This is a holistic supplementary initiative to the current dialysis care plans of patients. If patients show promising progress through these MedTech systems and tailored exercise programmes, KDF will roll these initiatives out to the rest of its centres islandwide.