3 Jul 2006

Samoa raises funds for new dialysis machines

9:27 am on 3 July 2006

Samoa's Ministry of Health has collected more than 50,000 US dollars from a radio-phone fundraising drive to help combat a dramatic increase in kidney failure cases.

It comes after parliament two weeks ago approved the new financial year budget allocating about 1 million US Dollars for the 15 month old renal dialysis unit.

The new health minister says the allocated funds are not enough to provide care and treatment for the current 30 renal patients plus 187 new cases on the waiting list.

Funds which have been raised over the weekend will help the purchase of more dialysis machines and provide health awareness programmes for the public.