Zimbabwe Faces Shortage Of Dialysis Machines

Minister of Health and Child Care David Parirenyatwa has confirmed that the country is facing a shortage of dialysis machines. This comes as the country is failing to secure the foreign currency needed to service the machines and to get spare parts. Speaking in Parliament, Parirenyatwa said,

We had a programme through which we massively imported these (dialysis) machines and that programme was supported by China.

Some of these machines went out of function and we have had problems in getting the spare parts. Therefore, the numbers went down particularly at Mpilo because we could not get the spare parts.
We also currently have a very intact programme through which we are intensively training the people who run those dialysis machines.

It is neither a question of administration or governance, but a question of lack of resources which is causing us to fail on getting more machines while when they need repairs, we could not get the foreign currency for the spare parts.

According to Medicine Net, dialysis machines filters a patient’s blood to remove excess water and waste products when the kidneys are damaged, dysfunctional, or missing. The dialysis machine itself can be thought of as an artificial kidney.

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