CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Robbie Rambarran, has sounded a strong call to action as the institution records a sharp rise in patients with kidney disease, warning that the increasing demand for dialysis and kidney transplants exceeds capacity.

Rambarran was at the time speaking following a recent groundbreaking procedure which was undertaken here. In his remarks, he noted that kidney disease remains a major global health burden.

He said Guyana is experiencing the same worrying trend. “In Guyana, we have seen an increase in patients diagnosed with kidney disease… asked them to pull some stats for me and at the Georgetown hospital from 2023 to date, we have registered 2,200 new patients [who] joined our nephrology clinic.”

According to Rambarran, the strain on services has intensified rapidly. “We have 368 patients on dialysis, of which 246 started this year. These are some alarming numbers,” he said while stressing that these figures reflect only GPHC and do not constitute what is taking place at other public health facilities and in the private healthcare sector.

The CEO went on to note that more patients are arriving at the hospital in severe condition, many due to not accessing or keeping up with their prescribed dialysis treatments.

“We have seen an increase in patients being admitted very sick, and majority of them because they don’t get their dialysis treatment,” he stated.

“We have been seeing quite a number of those who have been receiving the subsidies from the government to take up dialysis are not doing it [and] they are being admitted to the hospital,” Rambarran explained.

He noted that they had some 29 patients who were in the hospital, of which 20 were on dialysis.

Against this backdrop, he noted that the demand for dialysis and kidney transplants exceeds capacity.

“So, the demand for dialysis and kidney transplant, I could say, exceeds our capacity. This certainly is a call for action,” Rambarran added.