The specialized and constant attention to some 69 patients with renal diseases who need hemodialytic treatment is one of the priorities of Secondary Health Care, based in the General Teaching Hospital Doctor Ernesto Guevara de la Serna.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The Nephrology service, identified as one of the costliest for the health system, requires multi-sectoral care that goes beyond consultations on alternate days at the main hospital in Las Tunas, as it also requires the assistance of other sectors such as Transport for transport to and from the homes of each patient.

Blanca Rosa Ramírez Fargot, the head of nursing in this specialty, stated in an exclusive interview with the Cuban News Agency (ACN) that all the resources required for hemodialysis procedures are very expensive. This includes necessary items such as limbs, sliders, needles, gloves, and other consumables.

The greatest complexity lies in the fact that the person who attends the nephrology service does so for prolonged periods, due to the treatment of the disease itself, which represents greater consumption and wear and tear on both the doctor and the patient.

However, at the ‘Guevara’ hospital, protocols are being adjusted so that this important service does not stop, a strategy in which innovation and the reorganization of material and human resources play a fundamental role in making better use of the institution's capacities, Dr. Marianela Zapata Romero, director of the center, told ACN.

For the Cuban public health sector, the sustainability of this type of program is made much more complex by the negative impact of the blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, as the lives of these human beings depend on this hemodialysis treatment with a large volume of insurance that is acquired on the international market, from the hemodialysis plant itself to the routine medical supplies needed for this practice, Zapata Romero pointed out.