Samoa's Ministry of Health has started treating kidney failure patients in the newly built dialysis treatment centre on the country's largest island of Savaii, next to the Tuasivi hospital.
Speaking at the opening of the project, the prime minister Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi says the government has saved more than two and half million US dollars annually since opening its first dialysis unit at the main national hospital in Apia two years ago.
Previously, patients were sent to New Zealand for treatment.
More than 56 kidney patients are currently treated in Apia, but two Savaii residents have been transferred for treatment at the new centre on their home island.
