Mpilo Central Hospital has received dialysis equipment donated by an International organisation that was being held by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) which was demanding 3 000 pounds duty.

On Tuesday, Zimra released the equipment that includes portable ultra sound machine, peritoneal dialysis catheters, renal biopsy, needles, sutures, suturing tray and sterile packs after Government issued a duty-free certificate.

The equipment which was donated by the United Kingdom’s International Society of Nephrology (ISN) will be used to interpret kidney biopsies as well as perform peritoneal dialysis for kidney patients.

ISN educational ambassador Dr Nitin Kolhe together with two senior nurses, Sisters Carol Rhodes and Claire Mcguire have since started training doctors and nurses at the hospital on how to use the equipment. The training ends tomorrow.

In an interview yesterday, Mpilo CEO Mr Leonard Mabhandi confirmed that Zimra released the equipment on Tuesday.

“A duty-free certificate was finally issued for the equipment to be released on Tuesday. A team from Mpilo went to the airport to collect the equipment and the training of doctors has started,” he said.

The hospital’s head of the renal unit Dr Shepperd Kajowa said the release of the equipment comes as a relief to kidney patients and doctors who now have the required equipment.

He said after the training that will equip doctors and nurses with the requisite skills, the health institution will be able to offer, for the first-time, peritoneal dialysis for kidney patients in Matabeleland region and beyond.

Dr Kajowa said after the training, doctors will be able to conduct kidney biopsies, a development that is essential for diagnosis of kidney diseases.

“Now that we have the peritoneal dialysis, patients need not come to hospital to be put on the dialysis machine but can be put on dialysis at home. Under this alternative dialysis system, fluid is put into the patient’s stomach and is drained after about four hours. The patient can do this at home,” he said.

Dr Kajowa said the peritoneal dialysis is a positive development in the face of constant power cuts that the health institution is sometimes subjected to as it does not require the use of the dialysis machine.

“ Biopsy which involves taking a very tiny piece of the kidney and examining it under a microscope so that we are able to get the exact diagnosis, will greatly improve our services,” said Dr Kajowa.