Kidney patients living on Bantayan Island in Cebu’s extreme north and Camotes Islands in the province’s eastern seaboard will no longer have to travel to the mainland for their treatment as the provincial government here will open a dialysis center in the two areas.

Two hemodialysis centers will be opened next month following the commitment earlier made by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to make dialysis centers accessible to kidney patients everywhere in the country.

In a statement, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said 10 centers will be put up in each of the Capitol-operated island hospitals– in Bantayan District Hospital in the Municipality of Bantayan and Ricardo Maningo Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, Camotes.

“The centers will give convenient access to dialysis patients and enable them to exponentially save on finances for travel to the city for their treatment,” she said.

Setting up of these dialysis centers is in partnership with Medtronix Medical Supplies and Equipment represented by Jona Brigida Navarro.

Medtronix is also the Capitol’s partner in establishing 15-unit dialysis centers in Danao Provincial Hospital and Carcar Provincial Hospital, both of which began operations in April last year.

Garcia issued a memo in April last year addressed to all chiefs of Capitol-run hospitals that have dialysis centers, mandating them to exempt from payment of dialysis services all indigent patients duly certified by accredited social workers.

The provincial government runs four provincial hospitals and 12 district hospitals.

Apart from Carcar and Danao, Balamban Provincial Hospital also houses a hemodialysis center with 10 dialysis units. (PNA)