Hai Duong City Medical Center records comments from dialysis patients

Dialysis patients at Hai Duong City Medical Center

A reader reported on April 26 that while undergoing dialysis at the Hai Duong City Medical Center, the power went out and no doctor was available to handle the machines, resulting in the patient losing a lot of blood, which was dangerous. On the other hand, the dialysis machines at the center are very old and unsafe for patients to use. Long-time dialysis patients have complained many times about this situation but no one has addressed it.

Hai Duong Newspaper reporters worked with the Board of Directors of Hai Duong City Medical Center on the above content. The center's leaders said that on the morning of April 26, the center and neighboring residential areas suddenly lost power. At this time, the center was providing dialysis for 15 patients.

During a dialysis session for 15 patients (each patient uses 1 dialysis machine), the center arranged 1 doctor and 3 technicians according to regulations. When there was a sudden power outage, the doctor and technicians on duty had to handle the machines manually to keep the patient's fluids and blood functioning normally, without affecting the patient's health. Immediately after the power outage, the doctor in charge of the department asked for more medical staff from other departments to support the dialysis machines according to regulations. While waiting for support personnel, the medical staff in the kidney department had to handle each machine, so some machines had to wait. The power outage only lasted 7 minutes, so although some patients had to wait, it did not cause much blood loss and endanger the patient's health.

Doctor Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong, in charge of the hemodialysis unit of Hai Duong City Medical Center, who directly handled the hemodialysis machines when the power outage occurred on the morning of April 26, said: When the power goes out, the pressure in the blood pipes increases, so when medical staff handle it, it is inevitable that a certain amount of blood will fall out. However, this amount of blood is very small, only equivalent to the amount of blood taken for a normal test of the patient, so it does not affect health. When the blood falls on the floor, both the patient and the patient's family can observe it, so there is no way the doctor can hide it from the patient. When handling the power outage on April 26 as well as other power outages, the center's hemodialysis unit always prioritizes handling the dialysis machines for weak and elderly patients first, then for younger and healthier patients. Therefore, in the condition of not being able to mobilize support personnel in time, it is inevitable that some patients will have to wait.

The leaders of Hai Duong City Medical Center affirmed that this was an objective and unavoidable incident, and the center had a plan to support the kidney department when there was a power outage. However, due to the sudden and rapid power outage, the center could not arrange human resources in time, leading to some limitations as reported by patients. Hai Duong City Medical Center acknowledged the comments and will arrange more specific human resources to support the kidney dialysis unit in a timely manner when a sudden power outage occurs.

Through the investigation of the reporter, the leader of Hai Duong City Electricity confirmed that on the morning of April 26, there was a sudden power outage for about 7 minutes in the Tan Kim Hospital area, which coincided with the affirmation of the leader of Hai Duong City Medical Center. In addition, some long-term dialysis patients at the unit said that the dialysis of the center basically met the requirements, the handling of the sudden power outage on the morning of April 26 also had people waiting but did not cause any danger to the patients.

Regarding the reflection that the dialysis machines of the old center do not ensure quality, the leader of Hai Duong City Medical Center said that the artificial kidney dialysis machines have been put into operation for 6 years. Up to now, the operating hours of the machines have reached 18,000-20,000 hours/machine, while the maximum prescribed hours are 25,000 hours/machine. On the other hand, every year all the dialysis machines of the center are maintained and inspected by Vietnam Dialysis Machine Joint Stock Company, and assessed as meeting the safety conditions for periodic blood filtration techniques at the facility.

PV