Dr. Carlo Trinidad, a nephrologist (specialist in kidney diseases), said that while data were lacking, there’s a consensus that there were kidney disease patients whose deaths were because of complications from “missed” dialysis treatments. Trinidad said some kidney disease patients were unable to continue dialysis because of lack of dialysis centers dedicated to kidney disease sufferers who also had COVID. Last year, the NKTI opened a new hemodialysis center that is exclusive to kidney disease patients with COVID-19. Trinidad said that when COVID hit, dialysis centers were unprepared to handle the rise in COVID cases because free-standing centers were ill-equipped to handle confirmed and probable COVID-19 patients. In a research by PSN, out of 27 dialysis centers in the Philippines which were serving 1,700 kidney disease patients daily, only eight were prepared to handle COVID-19 patients.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer January 26, 2022 22:44 UTC