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Sunday, August 04, 2013 | 9:35 AMST JAMES, Jamaica — Thirty six million dollars is to be spent to expand the dialysis unit at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James. Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson at the contract signing ceremony on Friday, August 2, 2013 said that he was excited about the project, especially since the area of dialysis has had limited capacity even with the high demand.“The Cornwall Regional Hospital has over the years been expanding the dialysis unit as the demand for services continued to increase. The unit moved from five work stations in 1998 to 12 and stands at 18 today,” Dr Ferguson said. “After this expansion and relocation to the ground floor of the hospital, it is expected that there will be an additional seven work stations bringing the total to 25 and increasing the usage from 220 to 325 dialysis episodes for patients each week,” he added. The project is being funded by the National Health Fund.Dr Ferguson said the expansion of the unit bears even greater significance given the prevalence of non-communicable diseases particularly diabetes which is a major risk factor for kidney failure. “Diabetes was ranked the leading cause of death among women and the third leading cause of death for men in 2009. In addition, non-communicable diseases account for upwards of 60 percent of deaths in Jamaica annually. In the process we spend in excess of US$170 million per annum in this area.”Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver
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$36m upgrade for Cornwall Regional Hospital dialysis unit
