More Kidney Transplant Centers Eyed

The Department of Health (DOH) continues its efforts to capacitate more government-owned hospitals across the country to become kidney transplant centers, aiming to treat Filipinos suffering from kidney diseases.

Some regions have yet to establish medical facilities capable of performing kidney transplants. I Photo: NKTI-HRLMS

Peter Paul M. Plegaria, Chief Transplant Coordinator at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), mentioned that some regions have yet to establish medical facilities capable of performing kidney transplants.

"We still have regional centers in certain regions of the Philippines without transplant centers. So, in areas like Cagayan Valley, MIMAROPA, Zamboanga Peninsula, SOCCSKSARGEN, CARAGA, and MOH-BARMM, there are no transplant centers," Plegaria stated at a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday.

"The NKTI is capacitating other DOH hospitals to also become renal centers and eventually transplant centers, to improve access to transplant facilities," he added.

Currently, the country has 38 transplant centers—11 government hospitals and 27 private hospitals.

According to Plegaria, Chronic Kidney Disease is one of the leading causes of illness and death in the Philippines. Latest reports indicate that approximately 2.3 million Filipinos have CKD.

The NKTI estimates that one Filipino develops chronic kidney failure every hour, equating to about 120 Filipinos per million population every year.

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