ANGELES CITY—The mayor of this premier city in Pampanga has opened to the public the country’s city’s first renal-care unit or dialysis center to address what has been described as “an alarming number of kidney-related cases in the city.”

Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan was joined by Pampanga First District Rep. Carmelo Lazatin, City Vice Mayor Vicky Vega-Kabigting, members of the city council and barangay officials in inaugurating the Angeles City Renal Care Unit.

Pamintuan said the renal-care unit is the first established among the 138 cities in the country. The dialysis center is at the compound of the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center or RLMMC, more popularly known as the Ospital Ning Angeles.

The clinic, which can accommodate 14 patients at any time, offers various services and treatment for people suffering from kidney disorders. It is staffed by a head nurse, three nephrologists, eight staff nurses and four technicians.

“I have always thought of a dialysis center for our city to provide affordable dialysis treatment because kidney-related diseases are expensive to treat. Today, we are proud to become the first city in the country to have a dialysis center which will make the medical procedure affordable through the renal-care center,” Pamintuan said.

The mayor cited the case of Angeles City resident Jerry Tinio, 71, who has long been battling a kidney illness.

“The Tinio family spends around P5,000 to P7,000 per week for the dialysis treatment alone but would now spend less at the new renal center,” he noted.

Pamintuan said the renal-care unit was developed through the assistance and support of George Samson, president and CEO of the Detroit, USA-based nonprofit charitable organization World Medical Relief (WMR) that provided the medical equipment, the officers and members of the Angeles City Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce for funding the construction of the facility and his US-based friend Jesus Eres who handled coordination activities.

Dr. Antonio Dizon, RLMMC director, said three degrees of discounts will be offered to city residents: The poorest of the poor will be given a 75-percent discount per session, those classified as Class 2 will be given a 50-percent discount, while those that fall under Class 3 will be entitled to a 25-percent discount.

Costing about P1,800 per session, Dizon said a discounted dialysis treatment will also be made available to people outside the city.

Pamintuan revealed the city government and the provincial government led by Gov. Lilia Pineda have partnered in various projects that include health and the campaign against illegal drugs.

Councilor Alexander Indiongco, chairman of the City Council’s Health Committee, said the renal-care center is the realization of one of the pledges Pamintuan stated in his “Contract with the Angeleños” which he stressed the mayor set up “with sheer passion and the determination to serve.”

“This shows that the construction and operation of a renal-care unit in the city is not all talk but action,” Indiongco said, pointing out that this is just the first of a series of development projects to be undertaken in the Pamintuan administration, among which includes a city college for Angeles City.

The establishment of a renal-care unit or dialysis center in the city was prompted by what city health officials described as “an alarming number of kidney-related cases in this city.”

Internist Dr. Ramon Jose Suarez, head of the city renal-care unit, said during the opening of the dialysis center that of the 8,000 cases of kidney-related diseases nationwide, at least 300 cases are in Angeles City.

“The number is alarming considering we host a relatively high portion of the total victims. The 300 cases exclude the number of victims in Pampanga,” Suarez said.

At the same time, Pamintuan also announced the city government has allotted P20 million for the complete rehabilitation of the hospital, named after the father of Representative Lazatin.

The city government has already started using part of the loan made by the previous administration supposedly for the construction of a sports complex to fund the renovation and improvement of RLMMC’s equipment and facilities.

(Jacob Cunanan)