CHARLESTOWN Nevis, March 23, 2011 - A kidney specialist, Dr Ian Alastair Thomas from Antigua will visit Nevis on April 8th and April 9th at the invitation of the Nevis Renal Society in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Society’s President , Alexa Pemberton, has announced.
Dr. Thomas is expected to hold talks with medical personnel and Ministry of Health officials as well as address a public forum at 3.00 p.m at the Red Cross Building. He will meet with the medical community at 7.30 p.m at the same venue. On April 9th, he will be interviewed on Choice FM 105.3 from 9.00 a.m to 11.00 a.m on the “Good Old Days” radio show.
According to the President of the Nevis Renal Society, Dr Thomas’s maiden and familiarization visit to the island of Nevis will enable him to work closely with the medical fraternity on the island to plan further periodical visits.
Dr. Glenville Liburd a member of the Nevis Renal Society, appealed to those at risk among them hypertensive patients, diabetics and those with kidney stones to attend the public forum or register their interest with their physicians, health centres and at the hospital.
Dr Liburd also said that there was urgent need to collect data to establish the rate of incidences of kidney related illnesses. He also said that Nevis had the capacity to manage dialysis technology. He said in an interview that some patients from the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis have had to relocate overseas or islands where there are hemodialisis machines. The only dialysis machine available in St. Kitts is a peretonial dialysis that removes water and waste from the body.
According to Mrs Pemberton whose mother, Blondina Williams has for the past ten years suffered from chronic renal failure. Her mother travels to Anguilla where she undergoes a dialysis procedure twice a week
A return ticket for to Anguilla ranges from EC500 to EC700. Each treatment procedure costs EC1000.. Blondina’s treatment procedure is through a hemodialysis machine that purifies the blood and this machine is not available in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
For further information, contact nevisrenalsociety@yahoo.com or cell phone 6624641.
