The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, says it has recorded 1,162 patients for dialysis from January to September, 2025.

Hamamatu Haruna, manager of the renal centre in the facility, said this on Monday in Bauchi.

The federal government has initiated a special dialysis subsidy scheme to reduce the cost per session to N12,000 from approximately N50,000 to ease the financial burden on kidney disease patients.

The intervention is being implemented in 12 federal tertiary health institutions across the country as part of President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s effort to expand access to universal health coverage.

Ms Haruna said the facility witnessed a surge of patients from Plateau, Gombe and Taraba since the introduction of the scheme.

She said the centre was designed with state-of-the-art gadgets to provide services to persons living with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C as well as other patients

“Presently, we have received another batch of consumables from the Federal Ministry of Health. This is the second within this year, and whenever we place a request, the items are made available. The consumables supplied include catheters for adults; this alone is expensive for patients to buy outside,” she said.

According to Ms Haruna, the centre runs on a 24-hour shift daily supported by a standby generator to ensure a steady power supply.

She, however, identified inadequate human resources as a major challenge to meet the growing need of the patients.

“We run a morning/evening shift, and we are few, so, during emergencies, you are expected to be on duty even if you are not on the shift,” she said.

(NAN)