The government-run East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) and the privately owned Passion Healthcare Philippines Inc. (PHPI) have forged a partnership for the seamless delivery of hemodialysis services to treat underprivileged patients afflicted with chronic kidney disease.
The collaboration was made possible through the initiative of Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo.
“We want to assure disadvantaged patients convenient access to adequate and continuous hemodialysis treatment services during high demand,” Rillo said.
“We do not want patients in wheelchairs lining up for hours waiting for hemodialysis appointment slots to open up,” he emphasized.
Under the accord, individuals referred by the EAMC to the PHPI for hemodialysis treatment would receive financial support from the government’s Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients Program.
Filipinos living with chronic kidney disease usually require hemodialysis treatment two to three times every week with each session lasting for four hours.
Rillo raised alarm that chronic kidney disease is among the leading cause of sickness and death in the Philippines.
While the Quezon City-based EAMC is one of the largest tertiary general hospitals under the Department of Health, PHPI is a private health-care provider catering to hemodialysis patients and accredited by the DOH and the state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. or PhilHealth.
EAMC chief Dr. Alfonso Nuñez III and PHPI president Eric Olay recently signed a memorandum of agreement for the referral of hemodialysis patients.